The Home Team
by WriterGirl0812
Summary: Six Months After Forced Selection: When America is invaded by the Koreans, the non-captured members of The Expendables become one of the last resistance groups coming between the Koreans' shot at total domination. The Expendables toughest battle yet is their most personal. Inspired by the 2012 remake of Red Dawn.
1. Prologue

**Authors Note: Below is a preview of the first chapter of the third part of Lissa's story, entitled "The Home Team".**

**I'd like to send a special thanks out to those loyal readers from when I first posted the story. I never imagined Lissa's story would have a second or a third part. I'd also like to thank those new readers, your kind words mean so much to me. There wouldn't be a third part without you new and older readers!**

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A bruised Lissa Hollis with a half-moon black eye strolls down the street leading to the Downtown New Orleans Police Station. Weeks ago it stopped being an actual police station. It was once a place associated with safety, now only fear.

"Remember the plan Liss." Billy says to her through the com in her ear. She knows he doesn't like her walking into that station, not after how she came out.

A gust of wind sends her dyed black hair flying around her face and pulls at her black knee-length trench coat, causing her to pull it tighter with her hands. "All in position?" She asks.

"We're good." Billy answers.

"Be safe, love you." Lissa tells him.

"Love you too." Billy repeats.

With that Lissa pushes open one of the glass doors to the station. She takes a second to watch all of the occupants bussing around about their business. Some drag prisoners dressed in the orange jumpsuits those in the containment camps wore to the back interrogation rooms. The thought of those rooms makes goose bumps form on her arms. She pushes away the unpleasant memories before they can begin to flash before her eyes. She has a mission to complete.

Lissa takes in a breath and walks to the front desk with her head held high. She doesn't have a single fear, even though she's walking into enemy territory. The solider at the front desk looks at her, a slight look of recognition flashes on his face. She knows he's trying to place how he knows her. "Hi, how are you?" She asks him and unbuttons the few buttons of her trench coat, keeping it closed with one hand till they all are undone. "You're gonna' want to page your bosses." She then lets the trench drop from her shoulders and to the floor.

That's when it's revealed Lissa Hollis is standing in the middle enemy territory with a bomb strapped to her chest. It's the very reason why she has no fear. She grabs a gun from her thigh holster and fires a shot up into the ceiling. "Everybody listen up!" She shouts and holsters the weapon, "This vest is a very unique bomb. There are multiple fail safes, including it being hooked up to a heart rate sensor. My heart stops, it blows. My team is listening as well, they hear a shot, this vest blows. So nobody try to be a hero, that'll just end messy."


	2. Chapter 1: The Takeover

**-Before-**

"Tell me why we don't vacation more often?" Lissa asks Billy as they walk down the streets of downtown Nassau in the Bahamas. People line the streets all out celebrating in the warm night air laced with the smell of ocean water.

Billy looks down to her and smiles, "Because we're often kidnapped or saving the world." He jokes with her and kisses the top of her head. Though it wasn't much of a joke since six months ago they were saving the world from a deadly outbreak of the Spanish Flu while they both were held against their will. Close to two years before that they met while Lissa was held captive by a man named Sedov who was trying to force her to a create a program capable of mass identity theft. It was at that time she met her father, Barney Ross, a man she never knew while growing up. And when they took down Sedov together, she joined Barney's team of good-guy mercenaries named The Expendables. All of which were present when she married fellow teammate Billy Timmons. Though it did take them two tries to get the wedding to actually happen.

Long before she and Billy knew each other, they both accepted their lives would never be dull or normal. It happened for Lissa when she ended up in foster care after her Mom's death. With the help of a foster brother, she became a skilled hacker. She hacked her way out of foster care and continued to hack as she pleased until she was caught by the FBI. For Billy he lost normal the second his boots touched down in Iraq after basic training. Gunshots rang out, bombs exploded in the distance and wounded soldiers were carried on gurneys right past him as he got off the plane. Nothing seemed dull or normal then. Not when he killed someone for the first time, not when he made it up in the ranks as a sniper, not when he lost his best friends or the stray dog he adopted. They both fell into a bit of a routine, some sense of normalcy, when they joined The Expendables. Though neither of them would work 9-to-5 jobs or drive a minivan – unless it was part of an undercover mission assigned by the CIA.

Lissa looks up to him and smiles too, "I vote mandatory vacations every time we save the world." She tells him. They had delayed their honeymoon a few days to help save a kidnapped boy. After a week away they grew restless and got right back to work. Now six months later, during a two week period not a single mission came from Tool, Church or any of their other trusted contacts so Barney ordered the team all go and enjoy some R&R until further notice. And with that The Expendables scattered to various parts of the world to enjoy down time.

"They are predicting a storm here by the end of the week. We could charter a flight somewhere else. Rio maybe?" Billy suggests, "Spin a globe and pick a place? What do you think Mrs. Timmons?" When she married Billy she took on his last name, personally. Professionally, she kept going by Hollis. So many knew her as Lissa Hollis and about half feared that name. "Or Italy, we could both end up in food coma's from all that pasta. Ravioli. And the desserts. Say Italy."

Lissa can't help but grin, the thought of homemade pasta is extremely tempting, though fresh sushi in Japan is rather tempting too. Before she can suggest a place to go their attention is caught up a crowd of people all running up to an outside bar where an even bigger crowd is scattered around, all of them glued to the various television screens.

"What's going on?" Lissa asks when she grabs a hold of the arm of a woman running past.

The woman looks to Lissa with fear in her eyes, "America has been invaded!" The she cries and then shakes her arm away. She takes off running with the rest of the crowd.

Billy grabs a hold of Lissa's arm and pulls her towards the crowded outdoor bar. The two of them, like the crowd, turn their attention to the screens. No one reaches for their drinks and Lissa can just make out the mumbled pray of a man standing nearby.

"….this is not a joke. The United States of America have been invaded by the North Koreans. All media outlets are being shut down. We are broadcasting this through a basement system powered by a generator, but we do not have much time. They have shut down all electronics including cell phones and the internet. Government officials and military are being rounded up and those who are not shot on sight are put into re-education camps. Many citizens are put into these camps as well, anyone they deem are a risk to their power or hold valuable information. This is our cry for help. The entire East and West Coasts have been seized. Only a few states in the Midwest remain free. Help us. We need your-." And before the man can finish the video cuts out and is replaced with a local newscaster recapping the video.

"Prank, it has to be a prank." Someone in the crowd says. It's echoed by others while even more begin to wonder what country will be next.

"It's America! They have nuclear weapons. If the North Koreans can take over America the rest of us have no chance!" A man shouts, leading others to start to panic.

Lissa reaches into the pocket of her sundress and pulls out a satellite phone. She dials Barney's number and it doesn't ring. The same goes for hers and Billy's farmhouse and Tool's tattoo parlor. "I need a computer now." She tells Billy and with that they take off from the bar and back towards their hotel. Either this is an elaborate prank or the news is true.


	3. Chapter 2: Mr and Mrs Timmons

Authors Note: I'm planning the update schedule to be Mondays and Thursdays for now. There's a chance I'll change it to Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

An hour has passed since Billy and Lissa saw the news announcement about the takeover of the US. Since then they had been desperately trying to reach The Expendables, Tool, Maggie and Church. So far there is nothing but silence when calls were placed to Barney, Maggie, Toll, Gunnar, Caesar, Tool and Church. The silence and lack of answers are all signs that the power and cell service had been cut to the US. Yin, Lee and Lacy were all out of the country but their calls weren't being answered either. After that they tried reaching out to other friends and got nothing. "Everything is down." Lissa says to Billy as she stares at her laptop. In that moment a chill of realization hits her, the news was right. America has been invaded and all communications shut down.

"Looks like we have a job to do." Billy tells her. "We'll go to New Orleans first. Last I knew Barney and Maggie were there as well as Tool. We'll work our way out from there. For that news announcement to get out there has to be groups of resisters forming. We'll find the others there; Gunnar and Caesar aren't ones to miss a fight. We both know that."

Lissa finds comfort in his words. Barney's farmhouse, heck even Tool's tattoo parlor, were so well stocked there's no way the Koreans could get at them. They'll find a way into Louisiana and they'll be reunited with most of their team, then they'll find the others. "It's like that job in Pakistan." Lissa tells herself softly. They had all been separated into smaller groups with no way to contact each other on that job; this is a lot like that. Though a part of her can't shake the feeling that something is wrong, that finding their friends will be easier said than done.

"Now are you two sure you want to do this?" Sandra Lake, a television reporter from the Bahamas asks. The easiest way for Billy and Lissa to make it to Louisiana was to catch a flight onboard a small cargo plane heading for Canada from the Bahamas. The Korean invaders had reached out to American allies warning them to back off not get involved. Cargo ships like the one they are aboard are allowed to fly over the US but not to land. Which wouldn't be a problem for Billy and Lissa.

"We've done this, a lot." Lissa assures Sandra with a smile. She gives Billy's safety harness one last tug as he checks hers.

Sandra gives Lissa a small smile, "You two sure you don't want to be named in the story?"

"For us to keep doing what we do, it's crucial we remain anonymous." Billy tells Sandra, "And not just for this mission but for future ones as well."

"Ready when you two are." The pilot shouts from the front the cockpit.

"Remember, email or call with any details you need me to get out there." Sandra tells them, "Good luck."

Lissa walks over to the side door of the belly of the plane. "Ready Mr. Timmons?" She asks Billy as she pulls her eye goggles on.

"Ready Mrs. Timmons." Billy tells her with a grin as he pulls his goggles on as well.

Lissa looks over her shoulder and sees that Sandra has secured herself in a seat and then pulls open the door. The blast of strong cool air makes Lissa stumble a few steps, but she's quick to regain her footing. Jumping out of Barney's plane, which had a back hatch, making for less forceful wind, is much easier than this one. "One, two, three." She shouts to Billy and then jumps out of the plane and into the cold night air.

She spends the first few seconds of the drop getting herself in the right position and after that she enjoys the fall. Even high up the familiar smell of the Louisiana air makes its way into her nose easing the bit of homesickness she had developed while away. For those few minutes she's just enjoying the homecoming. When her outstretched hand is tapped, she's reminded the reason for the homecoming. To save the United States….again. She looks up and spots Billy beside her. He wraps a hand around hers and two prepare to deploy their parachutes.

"It's so dark." Lissa says to Billy as they begin to collect their parachutes now that they are on the ground. All around them in the field is darkness, the only light from the half moon. While the area outside of downtown Louisiana wasn't super lit up at night, there was always still street lights or lights from people's homes.

"We should get moving. If the Korean's saw the plane dip to allow us to drop they may send people looking." Billy tells her. "Good thing we have your compass huh?" He asks.

The walk to Barney's farmhouse is under a mile from where they landed and not too bad of a walk. Sticking to the woods they avoid detection from locals and Koreans alike though it slows them down a bit. Lissa is almost shocked when the dark woods give away to the clearing around Barney's farmhouse. At times the dark woods seemed never ending and she was glad to have Billy with her since he lead the way with the aid of her compass necklace, the same necklace that he got her to remind her of home and saved her life twice.

They had ditched their parachutes in a hollowed out log in the woods during the walk and now just have a backpack each. "We stick together. I think the back door is the best bet to go in." Billy tells her and pulls his handgun from the pocket of his pants. Before leaving the Bahamas they hit up a friend of Tool's who has a basement full of weapons and ammo. Lissa nods and follows Billy lead, pulling her own handgun out from the pocket of her jeans.

Together they move silently to the back of the house, up the porch stairs and inside. With it slightly darker inside, it takes Lissa's eyes a few seconds to adjust. With Billy's back to hers they begin searching the house for any signs of Barney, Maggie, any of The Expendables or anyone else. When they make it to the front hall Lissa knows something bad has happened.


	4. Chapter 3: North Koreans and Camping

The front door is haphazardly shut, but shards of wood shatter the floor. She doesn't need to see the outside of the door to know it was kicked in. She steps away from Billy and into the living room, there furniture is overturned and even in the darkness she can make out bullet holes in the wall.

"They came for Barney, or Maggie or even both." Lissa tells Billy, "How could they know about them? Maggie's CIA and Church keeps all of our names out of the databases."

"We don't know that they came for Barney and Maggie for sure. Maybe they rounded up the whole neighborhood. Or maybe Barney and Maggie put up a fight and they found them." Billy offers up as reasoning. It does comfort Lissa a bit, but she has to wonder why the North Koreans would bother to round up people from a small former farming town outside of New Orleans. Wouldn't their efforts be better spent going after known military personal?

Lissa lets out a small sigh and heads to the front door, "We should leave from here, head to our house, see if there is signs of the Koreans showing up there. We could stock up on weapons and I could try to get my computers going." She suggests to Billy as she pulls a pocket knife from her pocket.

"It's a good idea to rest for the night." Billy says, "I'm going to grab some of the non-perishable food from here. I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before people begin breaking in and hoarding food." He then heads for the kitchen.

"Good idea." Lissa calls over her shoulder and flicks open the knife. She begins to carve a compass into the back of the front door. It's the kind of thing that will be overlooked by the Koreans if they happen to come back, but a sign to Barney that she and Billy are okay and in the area.

It was clear the Koreans stopped by their house too, either to round them up because they knew who they were or they came for everyone. The front and back doors are kicked in, furniture knocked over and places rifled through.

"If they were just rounding people up, why'd they check the bookshelf?" Lissa asks as she tucks her gun into the holster at her hip. Her gaze goes to the shelf which has nearly all of the books that were on it puddled on the floor.

"Maybe they were looking for Country Domination For Dummies?" Billy asks her with a grin.

Lissa can't help but let out a small laugh, "What To Expect When You're Invading?"

It earns her a laugh from Billy who looks over a laptop on the other side of the room, "Smashed. Guess they weren't interested in the eBook versions." He glances towards the entertainment center, "I think they might have taken our copy of Twilight." He says as he drops the laptop down onto the desk.

The anxiety and worry that had been rushing through her system since they first heard the news of the invasion eases a little. "We we're screwed then. They know all of the government secrets and nuclear launch codes. Plus if Edward and Bella get together. So screwed."

"We should get some sleep." Billy tells her, "Didn't look like they found the weapons room, so it'll be a good place to sleep."

"I'm guessing it's going to be pretty damn obvious if we push our mattress in there huh?" Lissa asks him.

Billy gives her a nod, "I'll get the air mattresses from the camping supply kits in the basement." He tells her, grabbing a flashlight from the drawer of an overturned end table.

"Camping, great." Lissa says, feeling herself rolling her eyes without telling herself to. Jump out of an airplane? Trudge through a swamp? Spend hours sitting in a tree out in the forest waiting for the right moment to strike while being bit by misquotes? Not a problem for Lissa Hollis. Camping? You have a problem there. She puts the strap of Billy's backpack over one shoulder and starts climbing the stairs up to their bedroom. When they built the farmhouse they included a hidden weapons room in between the master bedroom and the guest room. At the time it seemed like a great way to hide their weapons collecting from friends or a burglar. Now it's a great place for them to hide in case the Koreans come back.

The next morning Billy wakes up to a faint glow in what should be the completely dark weapons room. Out of instinct his hand goes to the gun he kept beside his side of the air mattress and he blinks rapidly to adjust his eyes to the room. Instead of finding an enemy he finds Lissa hunched over one of her many laptops.

"Morning you." Billy says to her as he sits up with a yawn. He places the gun down beside him and peeks over her shoulder. "Anything?"

"First I'd like to point out how much I hate these Koreans. Why? Because other than invading my country they make things like camping and I hate camping. No hot water, no cold drinks, no electricity, no real bed, and need I continue? All I know is I started this morning off with a shot first ask questions later kind of attitude."

Billy kisses her cheek, "Well if that attitude sticks around we may have to call you Lissa Ross, since that's a Barney kind of attitude." He then rests his chin on her shoulder.

"That means you're married to my…." Lissa trails off and her gaze goes to her laptop screen. She shrugs her shoulders back, knocking Billy's head from there. "Look at this." She tells him.

On the screen video from the surveillance system outside Barney's farmhouse plays. The footage is shakey and not the greatest quality, meaning the cameras were working on battery back-up. Through the windows it's clear there is movement in the house. Just as a military Humvee with a North Korean flag painted on the roof pulls in the driveway, Maggi darts out the backdoor. When Korean soldiers come out of the Humvee bullets fly from the upstairs window of the farmhouse. The fire fight lasts for five minutes as the Koreans make their way into the house and finally get Barney. He's dragged from the house a few minutes later beaten, bloody and barely conscious.

"They took him." Lissa says staring at the screen as the footage changes to the Humvee leaving and the house going quiet. A strong sense of despair floods through her and Lissa finds herself closing her eyes as tight as she can to keep from crying. Barney's a prisoner of war.

Billy shoves the laptop off her lap and pulls her into his arms. "We'll get him back. I swear to you."

"Then we kill them." Lissa says as she rests her head against Billy's chest.


	5. Chapter 4: Bugs

**Authors Note: I will have a special slightly Valentine's Day themed chapter for Thursday's update.**

"Maggi got away." Lissa says, lifting her head up from Billy's chest. It's at least five minutes after they watched the footage. Her despair takes the back burner to her sense of urgency. "They knew the attack was coming. They didn't know for long, or else he would have warned us. Something or someone tipped them off. We need to check his house." Lissa says and gets up from Billy's lap. She grabs her weapons holster and clips it around her waist before heading for the door. "Barney couldn't warn us in advance. But he knew we'd find out and we'd come back. He could have left a clue to find Maggi."

Before she can pull open the door, Billy grabs her arm, "Careful, Liss. We don't know if they are out there patrolling. We have to be smart about this. It's daytime." He steps in front of her and pushes the door open first then heads out gun raised.

They spend the short walk to Barney's house walking on eggshells, looking for any sign of locals or Koreans. There's no sound of cars driving down the nearby road, lawn mowers or even birds. It's eerily quiet out. Like the whole area, even the animals, are on lockdown. It does nothing to ease Lissa or Billy's nerves.

Barney's farmhouse looks worse in the light of day. There are bloodstains on the front lawn, and Lissa can't help but feel a little happy Barney took a couple of them down. The inside of the house is in worst shape than she thought it was the night before.

"We should get out of here, as soon as we can." She tells Billy. If the Koreans did in fact target them, it's only a matter of time before they double back to Billy and Lissa's house.

"Agreed." Billy tells her, "So where would Barney leave a clue for you?"

"Some place they wouldn't find it, but some place he'd know I'd look." Lissa says. She looks over the destroyed living room and into the kitchen. The fire place, the kitchen table, the fridge, none of them call out to her. She knows Barney and she knows he'd pick a place that stands out to her. "Upstairs." Lissa says and then heads for the staircase.

The destruction upstairs isn't as bad as downstairs, but there are many more bullet holes. Lissa looks into Barney's room. All of the drawers have been opened and the contents pulled out. "He wouldn't put it in a book or a place like that. He'd assume they'd tear everything apart."

"Hidden somewhere? Behind a picture maybe?" Billy suggests and tilts a framed picture of Lissa and Barney from Billy and Lissa's wedding but the wall is bare behind there.

Lissa's about to suggest her old room when she zeroes in on the bare wall behind the picture frame Billy just moved. "I know where." She tells Billy and darts for the staircase. There's one place Barney would leave a message for her and Billy, a place that would be over looked.

She makes it into the kitchen a few seconds before Billy does and she's already putting a chair up to the wall. Lissa stops at a level about Barney's height and in the middle of the wall and exhales a few breaths on the spot. A little "O" appears on the wall. "Here." She tells Billy with a grin, "Remember the night Gunnar was talking about chemical reactions and how to make good invisible ink? When he was saying he'd make a better spook than Church?"

Billy pauses for a second and then nods, "Water and baking soda!" He tells her and then heads to the fridge. "And how grape juice works better than heat for revealing the message." He reaches into the back of the fridge pulling out a large size bottle of grape juice.

Lissa grabs a few paper napkins from the unturned over kitchen table. "Wanna play spy with me?" She asks Billy with a grin.

RUN. NOT SAFE. TOOL AT TOLL's. MAGGIE GOING THERE.

Lissa and Billy stand in the middle of the kitchen looking at the message.

Toll has an apartment in downtown New Orleans; it was registered under his name so the Koreans would know it. Which means Barney could only be referring to Toll's safe house about twenty five miles from here. A secluded cabin in an area with less neighbors than here, making it a perfect place for a hideout.

"Not safe." Billy reads looking at the message, "He'd know that we'd know that. If not the bullet holes would give it away."

Lissa knows that Barney's time was limited so for him to add in that it wasn't safe at his house means something more. Something that would have given Maggie and him a heads up. Bugs. It clicks with Lissa in seconds. "I'm sure it's nothing." She tells Billy, trying to keep her tone light. She locks eyes with him bringing a finger her to lips.

Billy nods and looks around the room, "Maybe we should plan on staying here another night." He suggests.

"I don't know about that, though it would be nice." Lissa says and grabs a portable radio from on top of the kitchen. "Wonder if stations are still broadcasting so we can get an update." She turns it on, finding a looped broadcast from the North Koreans telling all American citizens to obey the new leaders if not they'd go to containment camps. Lissa moves it about the kitchen, but finds nothing happens. She moves to the living room where just by the staircase, the radio signal cuts out. A sign that the house is bugged. The paint there is slightly chipped from a pocket knife, Barney or Maggie found it. The Koreans knew who they were and targeted them to be captured before the invasion.

"I think I'll try to get the generator going so we can take a hot shower. Sound good?" Billy says grabbing her wrist.

Lissa gives him a nod, placing the radio down near the bug to mask their movements. "Sounds fantastic. I'll go cook us some food, need to clean the kitchen up first." She says locking eyes with him. She can't risk the Korean's finding Barney's message. Since they just gave away how to make the ink invisible, it's better to get rid of it. They make it into the kitchen where she grabs a bottle of bleach, splashing the contents all over the wall. The now turned purple ink all drips down the wall. She looks over her shoulder seeing Billy rummaging through the fridge.

He looks up at her, pulling out a carton of eggs, "Scrambled eggs sounds good." He then tosses a few at the message on the wall for good measure. "I'll go get that generator going." With that the two of them take off running for their house.

"We grab everything we can and then we run." Billy tells her, "Who knows how much time we have?"


	6. Chapter 5: Clothes or Guns?

**Authors Note: Two things. First a shout out to Lupin fan1 for your feedback is greatly appreciated. Secondly, I had planned to post a slightly Valentines Day themed chapter tonight, but I couldn't get there without this chapter. So you have this one, which is a bit longer than the others, and before Sunday the slightly V-Day themed chapter will go up. :)**

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Lissa takes one last look around hers and Billy's bedroom with a backpack filled with clothes, first aid and other essentials resting on the bed beside her. She spins around taking it all in. The artwork hanging on the walls only has the theme of Billy and Lissa, none of fully matching but somehow it works. A cartoon drawing of them Tool drew up one night down at his tattoo parlor while trying to convince them to get it tattooed on them. There's a shot of Remy and Colt mid run through Barney's backyard and an antique gold frame mirror that Lacy dropped by claiming it belonged to someone famous and they ended up just liking it. Pictures from their lives, before and after they met each other, and a few supposedly lost Ansel Adam's photographs they recovered while taking care of a known human trafficker. They'd donate them to a museum – someday. All of the artwork made the room feel so much like home for them, more than any room in the house.

Now looking around it makes Lissa feel claustrophobic. Like each hanging object pushed the walls and inch closer and closer to her. When she had to run from Sedov after he and Garrett tried to kill and her Billy, she didn't feel like this. She knew she'd come home someday, she knew back-up was only a call away. Now it's just her and Billy, smack dab in the middle of enemy territory. Their only shot at back-up is if Tool and Maggie, possible some of the others, made it past the North Koreans. Unlike all their other missions there is no going home after this because home is now a battlefield. It's time to fight for their freedom and it's on battle she's willing to go out fighting. "I hope you're ready for it." She whispers to the room. She's unsure if hers and Billy's house is bugged like Barney's, but a part of her wants the Koreans to know, they aren't keeping control of her home for long.

With that she zips the bag shut and grabs a duffle of weapons from beside the door. They are taking as much as they can carry unsure of when their next chance to restock will be. Billy's small motorboat was left untouched by the Koreans when they first swept the property. They'll take it down the river at the edge of the property as far as they can then the rest of the hike to Tool's safe house is on foot. Outside she can see Billy walking halfway up from the boat dock, there's a bit of a smile on his face. Being outside helps ease her feelings of claustrophobia and she smiles back at him. Maybe they do have a shot at surviving this.

Lissa hears the crunching of tires on the gravel driveway before Billy, but when he does the look of pure concern on his face matches hers. The Koreans are here.

"RUN!" Billy mouths to her and starts jogging towards the boat keeping his gaze over his shoulder at her. She's running as fast at the heavy backpack and weapons bag will allow her. She keeps her gaze on Billy and the boat dock ahead, giving herself a target to zero in on. She only breaks her gaze when she hears a door being kicked open. There's shouting and more banging. She's nearly halfway to the boat when she hears louder yelling.

"DOWN!" Lissa screams to Billy and drops down just as gun fire opens up from the porch. After a second she hears closer fire - Billy firing back.

"Come on Liss. Move." Billy orders her. He reminds her a bit of Barney when they are on a job, for he sounds in control of the situation, in that moment.

Lissa begins crawling on her stomach, dragging the weapons bag beside her. She doesn't need to look over her shoulder to know the Koreans are making their way down the yard and she's moving way too slow. They can't lose that boat. She frees herself from the only strap holding the backpack to her. Clothes will be much easier to come by than the weapons. She kicks the backpack to a standing position behind her, offering some cover from the gun fire. She makes it to Billy just as his gun clicks empty. "Got a better idea." She tells him and unzips the bag, pulling out a couple of hand grenades.

"Good thing I played football in high school." Billy says and pulls a pin from one of the grenades. He throws it right in the direction of the oncoming Koreans. The echo of the explosion just begins when he throws the other one which leaves no one left chasing them – they are either too wounded or dead. "Let's go, we can't risk back up learning about the boat."

Lissa hikes the weapons duffle bag over one shoulder and runs onto the dock, jumping aboard the boat. She's just seated when Billy brings the engine to life and speeds away from their home.

They get about a mile away before they stop looking over their shoulders. The area surrounding the river is mostly woods with only a few secluded houses. It's extremely doubtful the Koreans are lurking anywhere nearby. So for the first time since they discovered the bug in Barney's house they can stop looking over their shoulders – just for a few minutes.

"You threw those grenades with the procession of a quarterback." Lissa tells Billy as she sits on the bench seat beside him. She spent most of the ride with a long range rifle at the front of the boat looking for anything suspicious. "I kind of always knew you were holding back in those Expendables pick-up games."

"Can't have your Dad hating me for being the better quarterback." Billy teases her, pulling her close for a second kissing her forehead, "Sorry we had to leave your clothes behind."

"I'm an Expendable Billy, clothes come second weapons always come first." She teases, "How long do we have till we have to ditch the boat?"

"Couple of hours I figure." Billy answers and pulls a folding paper map from the glove box of the boat, "Mind checking?"

Lissa shoots him a look of disbelief, "I thought we were Expendables 2.0. Last I checked, I used Google Maps or hacked a military satellite when I needed directions." She tells him with a small laugh, though it is all true. Barney and the others were constantly on her case for not being able to read a map.

"I'll be the one going old school then and plotting our course. You take over driving Captain Gorgeous."

Lissa switches spots with Billy and shoots him a grin, "Captain Gorgeous is what Barbie is named. Captain Gorgeous-And-Armed is much more appropriate don't you think?" She asks and shrugs her shoulder, causing the rifle to come into view, "But if you're real good I let you be First Mate Handsome-Hulking-Grenades."

Billy leans forward kissing her, "We're not that serious for two people saving the free world."

"Eh saving the world again? Must be Wednesday." She jokes with him. They have after-all saved the world from Sedov and his massive identity theft plan and Dr. Walter Fairview and his strain of the Spanish Flu, not to mention regularly took out bad men the CIA couldn't touch due to red tape. Fighting bad guys and saving the day is what they did.


	7. Chapter 6: The Couple Who Camps Together

**Authors Note: Sorry for this being a day late, I was having internet issues. Here's a silly cute and silly Billy and Lissa as a late Valentines Day gift.**

* * *

Its late afternoon when the sky darkens with storm clouds and minutes later down pouring rain comes from the sky. Billy is back driving the boat while Lissa sits towards the front with the long range rifle. It picks up so hard, Lissa can hardly see anything.

"Billy." Lissa calls turning to face him, her dyed black hair sticks her face much like her soaking wet clothes stick to her body. "I can't see anything." She shouts to him, trying to keep at least the clip of the gun from getting wet so it will fire if they need it.

"I know and it looks like it's only going to get worse. I'll get us close to land." Billy calls, cupping one hand over his eyes trying to get a clear visual.

It takes them twenty minutes and multiple failed attempts but they make it to shore, tying the boat off where it's hidden by some trees. Once standing on land where the leafy trees provide coverage the rain isn't so bad. They unload as much of the gear on the boat that they can carry, in the event they have to take off running, and head a bit into the woods. Billy takes charge putting a tent together while Lissa works to get forest camouflaged colored traps over their gear and weights it down with rocks. Their camp site is all set just when the wind begins to pick up speed and lighting lights up the sky.

"So cold." Lissa tells Billy as she climbs into the tent after him, pulling off her soaking sweatshirt.

"I thought Louisiana was supposed to be warm." Billy agrees as he pulls of his soaked jacket and t-shirt as well. The spring weather, especially with the storms, still brought some cool weather with it. "Get the wet clothes off, I'll find you something from my bag." He then turns to his backpack riffling through the contents.

It's about now Lissa wishes she chose her clothes bag over the gun bag. She pulls the wet t-shirt over her head and turns to pull her drenched pants off which are sticking her skin.

Billy turns around with a t-shirt and a pair of thermal long underwear in hands and stops, "What is that?" Billy asks, "I haven't see that."

Lissa looks down at the navy blue bra with lacey sides to it. Normally she stuck with a bra much more practically, especially when on the run from people set out to destroy the world, but in the rush to leave their farmhouse this morning she grabbed the first bra she pulled from her drawer. She had planned to change into another one later, though that opportunity is gone. "Lacey dragged me out to buy it. I was planning to save it for a special occasion. Like our one year anniversary in six months. I grabbed it this morning in the rush to get out the door."

"Well I like it very much." Billy tells her, dropping the clothes he retrieved from his bag beside him, "Special occasion? I think escaping from the Koreans counts." He moves closer to her, giving her a wide grin.

"We're going to need to rob a Victoria's Secret then." Lissa tells him, putting her arms around his neck, "Because I have a feeling escaping from them is going to be a common thing." She then kisses him. That's when the rain, the Koreans and the fight for freedom all slip away from her mind. Right then and there it's just her and Billy, alone and together.

Lissa wakes up with a start; not remembering where she is for the first few rapid breathes she takes in. After being kidnapped twice, waking up in fear you've been taken again isn't irrational. But then she takes in the tent and Billy's beat up army backpack and she knows where she is. The early stages of morning light spill into the tent that's empty other than her. "Billy?" She calls out; grabbing the t-shirt and thermal long underwear he had pulled out for her the afternoon before.

When she unzips the tent to step outside she smells smoke from a fire. Not too far from the tent Billy has a campfire set up complete with a makeshift platform to warm up food and water on. Lissa realizes how hungry she is now and wishes Caesar was here for he could make anything cooked on a camp fire taste like four star cuisine.

Billy turns around at the sound of her footsteps, lightened by her bare feet. "Morning beautiful."

"Good morning." Lissa says and sits down on a log beside him. Once she's sitting he hands her a folding metal cup of coffee. She swirls the contents of the cup, well she at least tries to but it really doesn't move too much.

"It's kind of sludgy, best I could do." Billy tells her. He's no Caesar, "I did however find a can of barley soup in what we grabbed from Barney's." He then uses a pair of combat gloves to pull a metal soup can off the makeshift cooking platform and rests it by her feet, "I know it's your favorite. I even picked out the lima beans."

Lissa leans over and kisses him, "I was damn lucky to find you Billy Timmons." She tells him after breaking the kiss. "This kind of makes me like camping. Just kind off." She leans forward grabbing a metal spoon from the camping cooking kit Billy must have grabbed before they left their house.

Billy looks up at the sky, a confused look on his face.

"What?" Lissa asks, dropping the spoon into the can of soup and inching her hand closer to the pistol on the other side of Billy.

"Looking to see if pigs are flying since you just said you kind of like camping." Billy says with a toothy grin as he sits down.

"Haha, real funny." She says and elbows him in the side, "Go eat your—" She looks at the cooking platform, spotting a can of beef raviolis. They were some random brand that only army stores sold and Billy loved. To her the contents of the can looking like someone tossed raviolis, old meatballs and bright orange pasta sauce into a blender. In other words, she left every can for Billy, "Vomit Raviolis and shut up."

"Oh I'm going to eat my Beefy Ravs and like it." Billy tells her, using the combat gloves to grab his can, "If the Koreans do take over, I'm pretty sure these suckers will be long gone. So I'm going to savor every bite." He then takes a spoonful making sure to make noises to promote it being delicious. "Love you."

"Love you too." Lissa tells him as she spoons of some of her soup.


	8. Chapter 7: Toll's Other Safe House

They arrive at Toll's safe house late in the morning after hiding the boat in barely standing boat house and hiking the rest of the way there. The house is hidden deep in the woods with a half a mile long dirt driveway leading to a only occasionally traveled road. It's large, like his house in Virginia that was actually a functioning farm. This place however looks like it's in major need of TLC.

"There's no cars." Lissa says looking to the head of the driveway. If Maggi and Tool were here, wouldn't there signs of it? Wouldn't Maggi be running out the door?

Billy nudges her towards the perimeter woods and starts dropping the bags he had been carrying. "We should check it out." He tells her, "While it's doubtful the Koreans found this place, we might have uninvited company." He pulls two pistols from a bag and tucks them in the holsters at his side.

Lissa drops her bags with Billy's, not liking the idea of leaving all of their supplies unprotected but being weight down while searching a house just isn't a good idea. She grabs a couple of spare clips for her gun and pockets them in her pants – which Billy had dried all of her wet clothes while she slept. "I hope their here." She whispers to Billy as she checks the chamber of her gun, making sure a bullet is ready.

"I know." Billy tells her and kisses her forehead. With that they jog up to Toll's farmhouse while keeping an eye on the area around them.

The front door opens with ease, but unlike their houses it hadn't been kicked in – a good sign. It smells of dust and mildew, clearly this safe house isn't Toll's favorite. Or maybe the poor upkeep is to keep nosey people from checking it out.

Wordlessly, Billy and Lissa go back to back while scanning rooms for any signs of life. The sitting room towards the front of the house has dusty white sheets draped all over the furniture and the artwork covered with UV protecting paper. The décor is that of an old house filled with antiques. When they make it to the living room that's when they spot two sleeping bags, one on top of a white sheet less couch and the other on the floor. At least two people have been here and judging by the lack of dust it was recently.

Billy taps her side and signals ahead to the room further down the hall. There's the smell of food cooking and the murmurs of people talking. They silently make their way down the hallway; it's a skill that's come from being on so many missions. Not a floorboard creaks and nothing is bumped into. Billy Timmons and Lissa Hollis were a near perfect couple outside of work, but when on the job they worked as a perfect team.

Double oak doors are closed to the room they can only assume is a kitchen. Lissa grabs ahold of a knob and holds up three fingers to Billy. He nods and grabs the other. "One….two….three." Lissa whispers and they throw the doors open their guns raised. But the room is empty, just recently empty since a pan of boiling water is on the lit gas stove top.

Before Lissa can even voice her thoughts to Billy the cool barrel of a gun is pressed to her forward. "Drop it." A male voice demands from behind her. She can tell the person isn't that large in size, for she doesn't feel much body heat coming from him. Scrawny like a basketball player she can only assume. A deeper voice demands Billy do the same.

"Lissa." Billy says softly.

"Billy." Lissa answers filling a grin form on her face, "Got this?"

"Got it." Billy answers.

The two of them move in near perfect synchronization. Elbows are quickly lifted up and swung back into their attacker's noses, kicks to the stomach and finally pulling the guns free from their attacker's hands. The two put a leg on their respective attacker's chest and aim their guns down at their heads. Pulling a gun on an Expendable? Bad idea. Pulling a gun on Expendables who have been kidnapped and blindsided before? A really stupid idea.

"Now who the fuck are you?" Lissa demands, letting out heavy breaths.

"Hey." A voice shouts from down the hall, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Even with adrenaline pumping through their systems, both Billy and Lissa can tell the voice is familiar one. One they hear when out on missions, one that made them laugh to the point of tears at times.

"Caesar?" Billy asks and from the darken hallway appears Hale Caesar. The sight of The Expendables barreled weapon expert and field cook is a welcome sight for Billy and Lissa. He then looks down to the two men he and Lissa have pinned. "You know these clowns who put guns to our heads?"

"What?" Caesar asks looking down at the two, it's clear he's not happy.

"You said…to…protect….the…house." The one Lissa has pinned wheezes out.

Caesar lets out a frustrated sigh, "Let them up." He tells Billy and Lissa.

Lissa removes her leg and looks to Billy as he does the same. It's clear neither of them plan to help the two men up not after putting bullets to their heads. Lissa empties the bullet from the chamber of the guy she had pinned and hands it back to him.

"Lissa, Billy meet Chaos and Hunter." Caesar says gesturing to the scrawny one who had put the gun to Lissa's head and the bulkier one as Hunter. "Chaos, Hunter meet Lissa and Billy Timmons."

"Chaos what the hell kind of name is that?" Billy asks. Sure many of The Expendables had nicknames or assumed names, like Billy The Kid, but Chaos?

"'Cause everywhere I go a hackin' I bring the Chaos!" Chaos says and with the way it rolls off his tongue with ease it's clear he's said it many times before.

Lissa can't help but roll her eyes and turns her attention to Caesar, "I don't even want to know where you found them, but is this everyone?" She looks past Caesar hoping at least Maggie will appear from some room down the hall. "Is Maggie-"

"Yo, maybe you've heard me I'm the one who hacked Citizen's Bank website and had notices pop up saying it was free money day if you brought a coupon." Chaos interrupts putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I was involved in the hack that had thirty three ATM's spitting out their contents." Lissa tells him, hoping it will make him shut up long enough that she can talk to Caesar.

Chaos looks at her blankly, like he's trying to recall something, "No way! Then that means you're the hacker called Anyanka!"

"Exactly, no let the grown-ups talk." Lissa tells him and turns to Caesar. "Is there somewhere we can talk?"

Caesar nods and starts leading her down the hall from where he came. "Hunter take care of the food, make sure there's enough for Billy and Lissa too."

"Yes sir." Hunter replies.

Just as Lissa enters the room Caesar leads her to she hears Billy pat Chaos on the back and say "Try not to drool, she's my wife."


	9. Chapter 8: The Only Expendables

"At first I thought it was some prank like one of those flash mobs, but then I saw the guns were real and that they were Koreans. I high tailed it out of there and got a call to Barney and Tool before the cells went dead." Caesar explains as he, Billy and Lissa sit around a table in the office of the farmhouse. "We all agreed to meet here. Tool was trying to call everyone he could; I don't know who he reached. I'm glad he got you guys."

"We were in the Bahamas; we saw all this on the news." Lissa tells Caesar, "Barney left a message for us in invisible ink at his house."

Caesar lets out a sigh, "They got Barney didn't they?"

Billy nods, "Maggie got away, any signs of her?"

"Nothing." Caesar answers, "Hunter and I have been patrolling looking for everyone. Last I heard Lee and Lacey were in Paris. Toll was on the West Coast, maybe Hawaii, Gunnar was maybe in Germany. Hawaii has remained free, but no way a plane from there is landing here."

"So we're the only Expendables on home soil ready to fight." Lissa concludes. It's a scary thing to think. No Lee driving in at 100mph, no Toll blowing things up, no Gunnar well being Gunnar. Maggie and Tool are MIA and Barney's captured Lissa gets up from her seat at the table and walks to the window, not wanting to be sitting. It's the fight of a century and The Expendables aren't in full force. It's her, Billy, Caesar and well Chaos and Hunter. "Actually what's the deal with Hunter and Chaos?"

"Hunter did me a solid, saved my ass from some Koreans. Chaos is some brain they wanted, so I agreed to help get Chaos and hide them out here." Caesar explains, "Hunter's a good shot, a Marine. He'll be handy in a fight. And since we're shot man power, Chaos will be good to have around since Lissa you're need in the field."

Billy clears his throat, "We should think of targets to start hitting. Try and get some intel on the others, bust Barney out…"

Lissa turns away from the window interrupting Billy, "How can we do this? Barney, did the planning. We followed orders. Can we really be giving them?"

"Last I checked, Barney was grooming the two of you to be The Expendables 2.0." Caesar interjects, "I'm one of the ones who follow orders. You two? You're the ones meant to give them. So you two tell me, what's the first order of business?"

Lissa pauses looking to Billy, unsure of what to say. Sure, Barney did want them to become the next generation of Expendables someday. When it talked about it, someday seemed years from now not today. She's use to looking to Barney for guidance, running plans by him. "We're understaffed." She puts out there.

"More bodies are a must. Four of us with Chaos hacking isn't enough. We need more people, people we can trust and that can shoot a gun." Billy says, "And we're going to need more of those if Toll doesn't have this place stocked like an armory."

"Time to rack our brains for anyone who's in the area that can help." Caesar says.

"Ideally people who the Koreans didn't go looking for, like us." Lissa throws out there. The three of them moving through check points would cause problems. They need faces the Koreans don't know.

Lissa's sitting on the back porch overlooking the woods behind the property, cleaning the long range rifle she had been using while on the boat. She's been racking her brain for hours trying to think of people to call for backup.

"Excuse me, Miss. Hollis? Mrs. Timmons?" Hunter guesses as he steps outside with a beer in hand.

Lissa looks up, "Lissa's fine." She answers.

Hunter pauses for a few beats, making things award around them. He then gestures to the seat next to her. "Can I?" Lissa nods and Hunter sits down beside her, he takes a swig of his beer then looks to her. "I'd like to thank you, for not throwing us out on our asses. I could handle it, but Clid-Chaos can't. He's the air conditioned room type."

"Think it's a hacker thing, since camping is my favorite thing next to Koreans." Lissa tells him with a laugh, "No need to thank me, it'll be good to have some extra bodies. You know, if you're willing."

"More than willing." Hunter tells her with a nod, "This is our home, our land. I'm not giving it up without a fight. And taking away Chaos's internet access well that has him ready for blood."

"Caesar says you're a Marine." Lissa says looking to him.

"Yes ma'am. Two tours in Iraq. Didn't really specialize in anything, but I have the strength to carry a wounded teammate to safety, the guts not to back down and I can shoot straight. Give me an order and I'll follow it." Hunter tells her.

Lissa nods and clicks the last piece of the rifle back together, "Caesar tell you about us? The Expendables?" She props it up against the wall, ready for use in a moment's notice.

Hunter nods and takes another sip of his beer, "I thought he was kidding when he said he was a good guy mercenary. But I've heard rumors of a team that stopped a Spanish flu outbreak months ago."

"That may have been us." Lissa tells him with a grin. Looking back at that mission, it makes it look so much easier than what they have to do now. And back then she had been shot and Billy was temporarily blind.

"Well I'm happy to have your back Lissa." Hunter tells her, "So we've got a weapons expert, Caesar, a couple of hackers, you and Chaos, a fighter, me, and a sniper, Billy. I think we need a few more people if we really want to do some damage."

"I think I know of someone." Lissa say to Hunter and gets up heading inside, "Hey Chaos! I need everything pulled up on a Jasmine Day Grant. Get the computers going."


	10. Chapter 9: Sarah and David Marshfield

Lissa and Billy walk down the street of downtown New Orleans. The streets, even during the day, were normally filled with tourists and full of life. Today not many walk the streets and all is quiet. Check points with Korean's are set up and many watch from their windows fearful they'd be taken off to the reeducation camps. Neither Lissa or Billy look like themselves thanks to a trip into Toll's disguise closet.

Billy's dirty blonde hair is covered with a shaggy dark auburn wig that hangs just below his ears. A pair of thick wire framed glasses cover his eyes and match the red polo and dark green dress shorts he's wearing. Overall, Billy looks nearly five years if not ten years older than he really is. Lissa looks equally as different with her dyed black hair hidden under a blonde wig pulled into a high ponytail. Like Billy she wears a pair of glasses, though hers are thin silver framed. She's in a knee length navy blue dress with a white cardigan and white tennis shoes. Though the one thing making her stand out, the fake pregnancy belly she didn't even want to know why Toll had.

Lissa finds herself rubbing her fingers together and there's a slightly sticky feeling to them. Chaos helped them link up false finger prints to dummy identities - Sarah and David Marshfield. Sarah, a high school computer teacher and David, a dog trainer, are who Lissa and Billy's finger prints will say they are.

"Do you see her?" Billy asks Lissa as he wraps an arm around her waist to support her.

"Not yet." Lissa tells him, "But that's Jasmine's thing, she blends in." Lissa eyes the few people out on the street as well as the Korean guards standing about.

"Who is she?" Chaos asks as he gets the computer system working off the near silent generator system – an invention of Gunnar's.

"I worked with her when I was a consultant to the FBI. She was a covert agent they used to plant bugs and for following people. She ended up going to the CIA and leading up stealth infiltrations." Lissa explained, "Even if the Koreans raided the CIA, she would have found a way out."

Jasmine would be a great addition to their team. The Expendables are use to doing things fast and loud, not stealth. If they were going to get Barney back and take down the Koreans they'd need to go under the radar.

Meanwhile, Barney Ross looks around the prison yard the Koreans had turned into a reeducation camp. Well more than twenty metal shipping crates had been dropped in by helicopters from the coastline. More were coming in each day. Cots and sleeping bags had been set up inside them for the prisoners, like him. All of the prisoners dressed in orange jumpsuits taken from the prison.

Around him are all men digging holes, well digging graves. Last night Cell Block C in the prison rioted and the Koreans used deadly force. While the prison was still being controlled by the guards the American government appointed, the Koreans took to policing it last night. Now they are digging graves for the entire cell block which would be cleaned out and used to hold prisoners like Barney.

Beside Barney is a man with dirty blonde hair, that reminds him of Billy's, the man's hands are cracked and bleeding in places. It is clear this man wasn't use to physical labor like Barney is. "Here," Barney says pulling a bandana from his pocket. He rips it in half and hands it off to the man, "Tie it around your hands."

The man looks around hesitantly and then accepts the fabric scraps. "Thank you." He tells Barney. He then begins to tie the fabric around the wounds on his hands, "You got a family outside here? Or did they get you too?"

"A daughter." Barney answers, "I don't know where she is." There's no sense in lying, the Korean's know he's Barney Ross, not one of his assumed names. He can only hope Lissa found out about the invasion and stayed the hell out of the United States – if they could be called that anymore.

"My wife and two daughters are at our house I think. They kicked in the door and took me. Took me because I'm a district attorney." The man explains, "You?"

"Let's just say I'm the type of guy who does what you do but outside a courtroom." Barney tells him. He's about to go back to digging when he can feel eyes on him. He looks around the yard but not even a guard is looking at him. He squints and looks out into the distance, he's almost certain someone out there has a sniper rifle on him.

Billy and Lissa make it through the first checkpoint in the center of town when Lissa spots Jasmine.

Jasmine is nearly hidden in a crowd watching a news announcement from the Korean's in a coffee shop that was still open. While her eyes look to be on the TV screen, Lissa knows they are on her and Billy. They don't even share a nod and she and Billy just keep walking. They make it another block when Lissa can just hear the faint footsteps of Jasmine following them.

"Almost home free." Billy tells her in a whisper then kisses the top of her head. He steers her towards an empty doctor's office. Despite everything going on, there really isn't anything suspicious about a pregnant woman trying to see if her doctor is open. The front door is unlocked, most likely left that way in the panic that followed the invasion. Inside is dead quiet, no one is here. They move quickly into an interior room, away from windows.

"Lissa." Jasmine smiles and gives Lissa hug, "I was so happy to hear you weren't taken. So many are locked up in those camps." She shares a relieved smile with Lissa before looking to Billy. "And this is?"

"Billy Timmons, pleasure to meet you." Billy says and shakes her hand.

"Jasmine Day Grant." She tells him, "So what's the plan?"

But before Lissa can answer there's the sound of the doors being thrown open and the pounding of combat boots on the floor. The interior room had no windows and only one door. The three share a look of panic before finding themselves staring down the barrels of guns belonging to the North Koreans.

"Hands in the air!"


	11. Chapter 10: It's A Glock

Just two heartbeats of silence follow before Lissa finds herself taking action. "Please. I need a doctor." Lissa pleads one hand in the air while the other cradles her fake pregnant stomach. It softens the look on the Korean's faces and she falls to her knees letting out a cry of a pain. The Koreans move closer, now concerned.

"You okay?" One of them asks in a heavy accent.

Lissa moves her hand about the fake hollow pregnancy belly, finding the exact spot she's looking for. She pulls away the Velcro pouch on the side of the dress reaching into the belly. "It's a…" She says and then looks up at the Koreans, "Glock." She pulls the gun from inside the hollow belly and fires two shots quickly into the shoulders of the two Koreans.

Two more gun shots ring out as Jasmine fires a round from her own gun, but goes for a lethal shot unlike Lissa's stun shot. "They know our faces." Jasmine says as the bodies hit the floor, "We need to go."

"We need to check them first." Billy says and moves to the two bodies without a second of hesitation. He starts pulling the contents of their pockets out and dropping them on the floor for Lissa and Jasmine to sort through.

"My Korean is rusty, but this looks like some sort of log." Jasmine says dropping a pocket sized notebook into a keep pile along with a handgun.

"Better idea." Lissa says and grabs the notebook shoving it into the open spot of the fake belly, "In case we're stopped." She removes the bullets from the gun and tucks it all away in there too.

Sirens ring out breaking them all from their search for more information from the guards.

"Someone heard the shots." Billy says pulling an assault rifle free from one of the dead guards, "We need to go."

"Back exit, it opens up to a delivery road. Quick to the woods." Jasmine explains and frees the assault rifle from the other guard. Lissa doesn't doubt Jasmine knows a hundred over quick ways out of this area.

The three make it for the back doors just to hear sirens approaching. A military Humvee with sirens onto is closing in on them from both sides. Multiple Koreans with guns hang out windows. The protection of the woods is just less than a football field, too long to risk running it.

"Jasmine." Lissa says hoping her friend has some sneaky way out of this.

Yet before Jasmine has a chance to formulate a plan a silver pickup truck comes flying past the Koreans and straight to them. The horn starts beeping but has no real pattern to it.

"It's Morse code." Billy says, "E…X…P…E..N." The truck stops beeping as it gets closer, Billy and Lissa know it's a friend not a foe.

"Fancy seeing you here." Toll Road says as he pulls the pickup truck up truck next to them in a tire burning stop. "Need a ride?"

"Good to see you man. Liss, Jasmine take inside the tuck. I'll cover from the back." Billy says and hopes into the bed of the truck with ease.

Jasmine and Lissa round the truck, shoving Lissa in the middle between Jasmine and Toll. Jasmine aims her assault rifle out the window at the Humvee approaching them.

"They won't be a problem." Toll says as he begins speeding away from the woods, "Dropped a couple of little presents on my way over." He then grabs a small control button from the dashboard and presses it. Half a second later multiple explosions ripple through the area. One of the Humvees must have just been over a one of Toll's bombs for it blasts into the air before landing on its side in a fiery heap of metal. The other dodges the bomb just to land in a giant pot hole created by another one. "Welcome to my country, enjoy the fireworks." Toll shouts out the window.

"God am I glad to see you." Lissa tells Toll.

"Feelings mutual, though we need to talk about that." Toll says gesturing to her stomach.

"Best place to meet a gun now a day," Lissa tells him with a grin, "Took it from your closet. Do I want to know why you have it?"

"Like you said, good place to hide a gun. You all camped out at my safe house?" Toll asks.

"We are, Caesar's there with a hacker and a former solider we can trust." Lissa tells him, "But they got Barney, maybe Maggie."

"What do you mean her passport is no good?" Lee Christmas shouts to the ticket agent at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, "I need her on a flight to Mexico with me today." While he has a passport listing him as a duel citizen of the US and the UK, Lacey only has a US passport. With the banking system down in America, he has no way to access his money to buy a forgery for her. He should have taken Barney's advice and stored cash in multiple countries.

"I'm sorry sir, but the American Consulate and the French government have put a ban on all American travel." The ticket agent tells him in a heavy French accent.

"Un-bloody-believable." Lee curses, scooping up his and Lacey's passports and walking away. He and Lacey had driven from Heathrow Airport in London, England hoping to find some flight out of the country. Every airport they stopped at in England was telling them the exact same thing, no flights for Americans. He makes his way back to the bar he left Lacey at and finds her laughing with a heavy set main with greying hair. He can't help but let out an annoyed sigh, normally he could deal with Lacey's flirty behavior but not now. Not when he couldn't reach any of his team over the phone, not when he knew they needed him. "Lacey." He says firmly.

"Lee, darling." Lacey says with a smile, "This is Mr. Gregory Bromfield."

"Pleasure, but we're going." Lee says to her and drops money onto the bar top to settle her tab.

"Now why would we want to do that? Mr. Bromfield is the owner of a company developing the next big toy. What was it, the Sally-Bot?" Lacey asks looking to Bromfield, who nods, "He's flying out to Mexico on his private jet to check on the progress at his factory. He was just telling me how it was looking for investors." Lacey says and gives Lee a look. Private jet meant less security and a money hungry company owner meant getting them out of here.

Lee clears his throat and offers a hand to Bromfield, "Lenard Smothers, of the New York Smothers, I'm sure you've heard of us. I work for a very powerful company always looking for great investment opportunities. I'd love to hear more about the Sally-Bot. Unfortunately, Lacey and I have to head to Germany in hopes of trying to find a flight out of here for her. She's an American and can't fly."

Bromfield shakes his head, "Pity isn't it? Where you two headed?"

"Mexico actually." Lacey says with a toothy grin, "We're visiting my grandmother. She's worried sick about my parents and brother who are in the US."

"Well you can't have a poor old woman worrying about her family just like I can't let a chance to get an investor slip away." Bromfield says and then waves over a man, "Charles, let's find a way to ensure my American friend here can fly with us."


	12. Chapter 11: Creating A Little Chaos

Gunnar grunts as he walks down a basement hallway. The place is filthy, with water dripping down from the floors above and dust covering everything. This building was long forgotten about, so he doesn't have to worry about anyone showing up. While it's dark and run down, it does offer privacy and space for everything he needs to do. The bowl of chili is warm in his hands as he carries it down the hallway. A door is covered with metal bars, the only thing new in the area besides the power cords leading into the room. He unlocks the door with a key from around his neck and steps inside the room.

There, Dr. Tcho Swan sits hunched over a table with a soldering iron in his hand. The doctor looks up as Gunnar approaches a mixture of fear and desperation on his face. "Please, let me go." The man pleads in English but with a Chinese accent. "Please. I have a family."

"So did I Chinese food and they got taken away from me." Gunnar says and sets the bowl of chili down on the table by the doctor. He pulls a bottle of water from the back pocket of his jeans. "You and your family will be well taken care of when we're done here. I've got a briefcase full of cash ready for you. You hear me? You work, you get money, lots of it. You understand?"

Tcho nods and uncaps the water, "But why take me? Why not ask for help?" He asks, "I know there were talks of other nations stepping in to help America."

"Asking for help means dealing with politics. I'm not doing that. I'm a blow them up kind of guy. Eat then get back to work. I'll check in on you in an hour." He turns his back on the doctor and heads for the doorway.

"Your family, were they killed for being a threat?" Tcho asks. Word of the re-education camps and killings of those in positions of power in the US came across the airwaves just hours after word of the invasion happened. It was world news now.

"Biggest threat out there. More than any army." Gunnar answers and shuts the metal barred door locking it. He retreats down the hall to the room his claimed as his. He sits down at this makeshift desk, which was once a round conference table. Shattered about is paperwork, print outs from news sites. Propped up with the aid of a few old books is one print out he focuses on. Images of the entire Expendables team are on there, with X's through everyone but him. It took torturing a North Korean military intelligence officer, but he finally got it out of the guy. The Expendables had been targeted for they were a threat to the takeover. All of them were killed, but him. And now he's getting revenge.

With Toll Road joining the team as well as Jasmine the Expendables 2.0 found themselves going through a week of the same routine. Weapons training, physical training, intelligence gathering, mission planning and then more training. And today, they were finally taking on their first mission – neutralizing a North Korean army base in City Park, one of the parks in New Orleans. Their ultimate plan is to bust Barney and any other Expendables, though they aren't sure who are captured, out of re-education camps. With Barney and as many other Expendables as they could get, they'd stand a chance at a full on war against the Koreans. For now, they had to stick to small battles.

"You know, when I was fighting oversees, we were the good guys. We were kind of like the police helping keep order." Hunter says as he drives a stolen minivan down the street towards the park with Lissa in the passenger seat. Behind him is a pick-up truck with Toll and Caesar. Billy and Jasmine are in the crowd with guns in hands, ready to shoot anyone who gets close to either car. "I'm kind of looking forward to creating a little-." He then pauses letting out an annoyed sigh.

"Say it big brother!" Chaos chimes in through the ear buds in the team's ears, "You want to create some Chaos!"

"Chaos, watch the security feeds." Lissa orders. Chaos had been left behind at the farmhouse with the task of monitoring the Korean's radio feed and any surveillance cameras still working. The order is all it takes to hush Chaos's chatter.

The park was normally a pretty site it's littered with tents of all sizes all filled with Koreans.

"We're on your six's we're all clear." Billy says.

"Here we go." Lissa says and then grabs a black masquerade mask with red lace on it from the floor of the passenger seat and pulls it on. While she moves to the backseat, Hunter pulls on one with dancing bears on it. It only takes her seconds to assemble the high powered machine gun, "Let's light 'em up." She orders and with that throws open the sliding back door to the van. Her finger finds the trigger and she opens up fire on the Korean's tent. It doesn't take long for North Korean soldiers to come running out, screaming and looking for cover. Soon return firm is sent their way.

"Headquarters is sending out back up. A lot of it. Get going!" Chaos shouts into their ear buds.

As the firing stops, Lissa can head a sound she knows but can't place. She leaves the door open as Hunter speeds off to pick up Billy and Jasmine. She catches sight of a cement building with a "EX WAS HERE. WE FIGHT." is printed on the wall in red spray paint. She'd recognize his handwriting anywhere. Looks like they are The Ex's now.

"I don't see why people like Mexico." Lacey says to Lee as they sit in a rundown bar not too far from the airport. They had made it from Mexico but were having a hard time finding people willing to smuggle them across the border and into most of Texas. While Texas was one of the only states leading a fight against the North Koreans, the Mexicans were trying to keep their distance. Lacey takes a sip of her margarita, "Not even this makes me happy."

"I know Lace." Lee says as he studies over the advertisement section of a newspaper, looking for ads that suggest coyotes, those who smuggle people across the border, for hire. He lets out a frustrated sigh, while they had made it from overseas, they weren't having much luck.

"Yo Hector put the news on! Some Americans shot up a whole bunch of Koreans!" A guy says as he walks into the bar.

This catches both Lee and Lacey's attention and they look to the TV. Hector, the bartender switches over to a news channel. While it's all in Spanish, Lee and Lacey don't' need a translation. There on the screen are shaky recordings of Lissa and Caesar, wearing ridiculous masquerade masks, firing into a whole camp of Koreans.

Lee feels a smile forming on his face; at least The Expendables are leading some sort of fight. Now he needs to find a way to join it.


	13. Chapter 12: Speed Up

Parish Prison, New Orleans, LA.

"Their spooked about something." Ian Keller, the district attorney Barney friended weeks ago, tells him. An announcement had rang over the outdoor PA system ordering all prisoners to the center of the yard. There a large platform is set up with an arena sized TV screen, used to air re-education videos as well as general propaganda for the North Korean's. "I heard it this morning when I was on kitchen duty."

Barney shoves his hands into the pockets of his jumpsuit and looks out into the distance. On the left side of the yard there's construction going on, building an office and apartment for the general overseeing the re-education camp. Barney had been involved in the cement pouring for the foundation but once it came time for tools to be used he was assigned to the laundry facility inside the prison. Only Cell Block A was still standing, all of the others rioted and were shot on site. Many North Korean prisoners still live out in the shipping containers, like him, while others are locked up inside the prison. Barney would give anything to be on construction detail, if he could get a hold of a screw driver or a hammer he'd have a shot at getting out of here. Which is the very reason why he knows he's washing jumpsuits and sheets, the Korean's know he's dangerous.

Out in the distance he catches a quick glimpse of metal reflecting in the sunlight. The sniper is back, with him in the crosshairs. He's not sure if the sniper is friend or foe yet. He's been alone with the ability to escape but the sniper never fired making him wonder if the sniper really isn't a friend. Though he did help some of the weaker men with grave digging and he wasn't shot for that. So maybe not a foe.

Prisoners all crowd around the platform and the Colonel General walks onto the stage. "Greetings. Today I will be showing you why these re-education camps are needed. We are here to help you all, we are here to cure you of your material desires and unfavorable political ideals. But there are those out there who are fighting against this, your own people." He says and then a video clip cues up behind him on the screen. It shows American's in masquerade masks opening fire on innocent looking North Korean soldiers. Barney doesn't need a spook from the CIA to tell him the footage has been altered, he knows it in his gut. Because of one of the shooters, who is later depicted slicing the throat of a North Korean woman in the middle of the street, is Lissa. He knows his daughter; he knows she isn't capable of such brutality even on the guilty. The attacks are edited to look like they are done without provocation, just in cold blood. He knows better, he knows they are fighting for their freedom.

"That's what has them spooked." Ian whispers to him.

"And that's what gives me hope." Barney tells him.

"Drinks on me boys." Lissa shouts as she throws a Molotov cocktail into a bar that had been taken over by the North Korean's. Earlier preparation had the American bartender in the know and warned to take cover then run out. Happy with the destruction caused, she goes running down to the North Korean Humvee parked just a few cars away from the bar. "Chaos, status on that hack."

"Just a second." Chaos shouts into her ear via the ear bud.

"Tick tock." Lissa warns him as she climbs into the passenger seat. The Korean's brought a lot of new technology with him, including military vehicles that worked off computers making them hack able. She doesn't need to put a key in the ignition, just press a button and comes to life after Chaos finished the hack. Lissa looks over her shoulder as she slams her foot down on the gas, in the back seat of the Humvee are boxes filled with guns and ammunition. While Toll's farmhouse is well stocked, it's always better to have more weapons than your enemies, "I've got presents." She tells the guys and takes the corner, slowly just a bit.

The slowing of the door less Humvee allows Caesar to jump into the passenger seat with ease. Around his neck is two messenger bags of fresh groceries, they were all getting sick of the canned goods at Toll's. "Trade you one of those grenades for an orange." Caesar teases.

Lissa takes the next turn where they are to pick up Billy, who provided sniper support to Caesar. The grocery store owner was a longtime friend of Caesar's, but with rewards out for the masked Ex's they weren't sure who they could fully trust. So Billy was needed to provide backup just in case.

It happens slow and fast for Lissa. One second she's smiling seeing Billy become down the fire escape from the apartment building, the next there's a North Korean across the street opening fire on Billy. Billy takes two bullets to the chest before hitting the ground. The North Korean begins to cross the street, thinking the Humvee is back-up in pursuit of the man he just shot. He gives a nod to the Humvee and expects it to stop, but Lissa doesn't take her foot off the gas. Billy is laying on the sidewalk, at not risk of being hit.

"You know what they say when you're going to hit a deer right?" Caesar says and then braces a hand on the roof of the Humvee, "Speed up!"

Lissa presses down the gas at the same time the solider realizes they are the enemy. He fires shots from his handgun at the window, but they only leave small dents in the bulletproof glass. She's too distracted by the fact her husband is lying on the ground to even feel bad for the thud that comes from hitting the solider. She slams her foot down as hard as she can on the break and bails out of the vehicle. "Cover me." She shouts to Caesar.

When she makes it to Billy he's red in the face and lying on his side. "Vest, vest." He wheezes out to her.

Lissa breathes out a sigh of relief and tugs the collar of his grey V-neck down seeing both bullets sticking out of his bulletproof vest. He'll be bruised up and sore, but not dead. "We might need to get you a compass too." She tells him as she helps him to his feet to into the Humvee.

"Get moving, we're behind schedule." Toll warns them over the ear buds.

Caesar is now behind the wheel of the Humvee and speeds off once Billy and Lissa are safely inside.

"Tell me I got shot for apples." Billy says to Caesar with a small laugh.

"And steaks." Caesar tells him, "We're eating good tonight."


	14. Chapter 13: Rings

**Toll's Louisiana Safe House**

Back at Toll's safe house, Lissa sits on the bed in the guestroom she and Billy took over as theirs. They had gotten back from the latest mission a few hours ago, ate and now were relaxing. With a laptop in her lap she's typing away at a code that will hopefully allow them to hack into the North Korean's communications system. She only looks up when she hears the door to the attached bathroom open. Billy steps out of the bathroom, drying his hair with a towel. He gives her a smile as he stands in the doorway, in just a pair of tan cargo shorts. His bare chest shows a deep purple, nearly black, bruise the size of CD just above his heart. While she's use to him, her and everyone else on the team coming home black and blue but this bruise scares her. If he hadn't of being wearing a vest, he'd be dead. Without meaning to, a gasp leaves her lips as she looks the bruise over.

"It doesn't really hurt Liss." Billy tells her right away, trying to assure her. "The vest took the most of it. It'll be better in a few days." He crosses the room to meet her, throwing the towel into the bathroom.

"I just don't like it." Lissa says setting the laptop down on the bed and getting to hear feet, "Our lifestyle, I can deal with. This war, I can handle. Garrett putting a nail through my hand, handle it. A bullet to my chest, been there and done that. Barney being a prisoner of war, okay. But losing you? I just can't Billy. I can't." She tells him and wraps her arms around his waist, careful to avoid her head resting near the bruise. She can feel tears forming her eyes and she tries to blink them away.

Billy holds her tight against him, "You'll never have to do that, I promise you." He tells her and kisses the top of her head. "We're going to be okay."

"We don't know that." Lissa says, "What if the guy aimed high and hit your head, aimed low and hit the artery in your leg? What if you weren't in a vest? What if they find us here and kill us in our sleep? There's no going home at the end of the job, because home is the job."

"And what if we win this? What if we cause so much hell they run back to their own country? What if Booker or Gunnar show up the second a Korean has one of us in the crosshairs? We don't know how it all will play out. We just have what ifs to wonder about." Billy tells her, "And it will drive you crazy wondering what if."

"I know." Lissa tells him, "I know, it's just the thought of losing you? That brings on a whole set of pitch black darkness there's no coming back from. If one of them took you from me, I'd track, find and kill every damn one of them."

Billy shakes his head and steps back from her so he could look her in the eyes, "If something happens to me, you need to promise no suicide missions. No going pitch black. Something happens to me; you run and get the hell out of here. You listen to me? You run and do not look back."

"Then you need to promise me the same." Lissa tells him, "They kill me, the take me, whatever it is. You don't go running in halfcocked on a rescue or revenge mission."

"I promise."

"I promise."

"If we're going to be sticking to our new identities," Lissa begins and pulls her wedding ring off her finger, "We can't have these." She tells him holding her ring up. With their missions becoming more and more high profile, they had to put back up plans into place in the event one of them was taken hostage. Lissa's real finger prints now belong to Skylar Jones, an out of town computer teacher like Sarah Marshfield. Skylar is a widow, losing her husband in the war in Iraq.

Billy looks down at his hand, taking one look at his own wedding band before pulling it off. Running his finger prints brings up Andrew Glass, a bank teller visiting from out of town visiting friends. His fiancé died of breast cancer over a year ago. "Here." Billy says reaching behind her neck, unhooking her compass necklace. He slides his ring down the chain so it rests next to her compass. "Now you'll have me with you no matter what."

Lissa smiles and reaches into his duffle bag he took from their house, inside is his dog tags from when he was in the military. She pulls the dog tags with his real name off of them and slides her ring onto the chain. "Here you go, Mr. Glass." She tells him.

"We're going to make it through this, I know we will.' Billy assures her.

There's a knock on their door and Hunter peeks his head inside, "Chaos has everything set up. So we're ready when you are."

Lissa gives him a nod, "We'll be right there."

Hunter closes the door behind him and Billy grabs a clean black shirt off the bed.

"Ready for this?" Billy asks her.

"Ready."

A black back drop is set up in front of a camera. Lissa and Billy step into view of the camera, accepting masquerade masks from Toll.

"I've got the encryption all set up. I'll also have outside sounds playing in the background like seagulls, trains and people talking. They won't be able to tell real background noise from fake." Chaos says walking up to them, "The voice scrambler is done as well as the face pixilation. They'll only see parts of you that we want them to see."

"Good job Chaos." Lissa says and tucks her compass necklace into her shirt, making sure the chain is hidden from view. Chaos, though hyperactive, is proving to be very useful.

"We're ready." Billy tells Chaos and reaches over giving Lissa's hand a squeeze.

Chaos nods and holds up three fingers counting down till the camera begins to record.

"People of the United States Of America, we come to you as your friends, your allies. We are the ones fighting for your freedom, fighting to rid us of the enemy who invaded our home." Billy begins.

"Like the Minute Men who fought in the American Revolution, we are ready at a moment's notice to protect our home. We are fighting battles every day, taking out the enemy who wants to control us. Do not be fooled by the education broadcasts. We are not attacking innocent Korean's on the streets. We are going over soldiers with guns, controlling our streets." Lissa continues on.

Billy clears his throat and looks the camera dead on, "To those American's watching, we urge you to stand up and fight in any way you can without putting your lives on the line.

"We will not rest; we will not stop until the United States of America is free of the plague that is North Korea." Lissa finishes, "We urge you to back off and leave our home. If you do not, we will unleash more hell than we have before. This is our home, our country and the welcome mat has been removed."

"We are the Exes and we will let freedom ring." Lissa and Billy say together. And with that their threat of full out war on the Korean's goes live. With their faces darkened and pixelated and their voices changed. Neither of them are recognizable, but the threat is still clear - leave or it means war.


	15. Chapter 14: The Hack

**Parish Prison, New Orleans, LA.**

There's the loud noise that comes from static on a radio and then the large TV screen in the center of the prison yard comes to life. Barney looks up from the cart of laundry he was pushing out to the shipping containers out in the yard. He watches the message play and can't help but feel a smile form on his face. Even with the pixilation disguising faces and the voices changed he knows who is behind the message. "Good job Liss." He finds himself whispering as the North Korean's rush to try and shut the screen down.

But the damage is already done; everyone out in the yard has begun to cheer out "Exes!". It's clear the message also aired inside the prison for the riot siren begins to ring out from cellblock A.

**Somewhere In Germany  
**  
Gunnar sits in his dark and dirty room stabbing away at a military Salisbury steak. A TV in front of him is tuned into a news station out of the Bahamas; he's noticed they always have breaking news on the situation in America first. The news reports have said there's a rebel group in Louisiana as well in other states, he hasn't paid much attention. His friends are all gone, it's not them, but he likes to hear of the fight going on there. Maybe after his self-assigned mission, he'll head out to one of those states with the weakest resistance and help them.

"The Resistant Group out of Louisiana has hacked into the North Korean broadcast system for the entire state. We received a copy of their message from an anonymous source." Sandra Lake, the news anchor says.

The words 'Louisiana' and 'hack' are enough to catch Gunnar's attention. He watches the video message that plays on the screen. He doesn't let himself get hopeful, not until the very end when he hears the last line spoken. The Exes. In that moment pure happiness overcomes him and he's left only able to flip the table he sits at over. "Their alive." He says and then takes off down the hall to the room he's keeping Dr. Tcho Swan in, "Hey Doc, time table has been pushed up. Get it done now." He orders.

**Monclova, Mexico **

"Stay in the car Lacey." Lee says as he pulls the car into the parking lot of an abandoned building. He finally found an advertisement for a coyote. He hands her a small handgun and gets out of the car, leaving the keys with her.

From the shadows walks a tall Mexican man. "Where you trying to go?" The man asks.

"I'm hoping for the US in general." Lee tells him, not wanting to give away where he's going. The last thing he needs is the North Korean's getting word that people matching his and Lacey's description where heading for Louisiana. "I've got family up in Michigan; I need to check on them."

"I see, let me make a call to my partner." The man tells him and pulls out a cellphone before Lee can object. The man begins to speak rapidly in Spanish.

While Lee's Spanish is a little rusty he knows enough to make out 'man and a woman matching the description'. Lee looks back to the car, giving Lacey two quick nods, their sign things were about to go bad. The man ends his call as Lee looks to him, "I think this whole thing was a bad idea. We're going to go." Lee tells him.

"Stay, stay my friend. We need to talk price, even if you don't use my services I still need some payment." The man explains.

Lee fakes reaching for his wallet but instead goes to reach for his gun.

"Hands behind your heard!" The man shouts pulling out his own gun before Lee has a chance.

"This is not a very good idea." Lee warns him, "For you that is." But before he can even reach for a knife he kept tucked into the back of his light weight coat a gunshot rings out.

"That was a warning; the next one is a kill shot." Lacey shouts as she holds a rifle out the window of their car.

"Now, now, there are no need for guns." A new voice says and a man walks out from the shadows, "Actually all of you put them down now. I don't like guns being pointed anywhere near me." There's power an authority to the man's voice, the coyote puts his back in his holster first and then Lacey slides her rifle back into the car.

The newly arrived man steps further into the light and Lee knows the man's face. "Low Jack." He greets, "It's been awhile, since Belize I believe?"

Low Jack gives Lee a grin, "Ah yes, Belize. When my brother called pleading for me to get a helicopter out to his friends. I remember." He stops walking till he's in front of Lee, "I know we can't be certain now, but my brother? Was he good when you saw him last?"

"Tool was doing very well." Lee tells him. Lee didn't know the whole story, only that Tool and Low Jack were brothers who had a massive following out. Considering Tool was able to get Low Jack to help The Expendables when they were stranded in Belize years ago, Lee can only assume Low Jack was the one causing the fall out. "I'm trying to make my way up there to rendezvous with my team."

"I saw the video." Low Jack says referring the video where the Exes promised war, "I put word out to all my people to contact me if anyone matching any of The Expendables descriptions came looking for a way into the US."

"Has anyone else?" Lee asks, hopeful. He knew Gunnar, Lissa and Billy along with him and Lacey were outside of the country at the time of the invasion. Somehow Lissa and Billy made it back, but he doesn't know about Gunnar.

"No only you two." Low Jack says sadly, "I've been working with my contacts trying to get word on the others. I have reason to believe Barney was taken, nothing on anyone else. Not even my brother."

"If you can get us back in, I'll get you word on Tool." Lee promises.

"I can do better than that. I've got weapons, food, medical supplies all for you to bring in." Low Jack shares, "Come, you two come to my house for the night and tomorrow we'll get you back into the United States."

**Toll's Louisiana Safe House**

Lissa looks up from her spot at the head of the table, "So we all agree we need to attack the police station, the Koreans headquarters and get one of their communications boxes. We have that, we can hear everything they say, everything they plan."

"Agreed." Billy, Caesar, Toll, Hunter and Chaos reply.


	16. Chapter 15: Boxy Stab Stab

**Authors Note: With yet another snow storm heading my way, I am posting the Tuesday update today just in case I lose power tomorrow.**

**Secondly, for those of you wondering where Yin Yang is. Well he's been mentioned, not by name, in an earlier chapter. More on Yin and what he's been up to since the invasion will be coming soon.**

**Formerly the New Orleans's Police Station. Currently, North Korean's New Orleans's Head Quarters.**

Gun fire rings out through the building as well as shouting and the occasional smashing of glass. Their raid tonight on the headquarters was met with more resistance then they had planned for. A last minute life celebration service was being held for a General who was killed at the Parish Prison during a riot in cellblock A two nights ago. They had been caught by a couple of drunk party attendees in the middle of their mission.

"Move, move, move." Hunter shouts to Lissa as he runs backwards down the hallway opening fire on the Korean's following them out to a back exit.

Lissa holds the communications box, which is held in a silver briefcase, close to her chest with one hand and a glock in the other. All it took was one loud mouth drunken North Korean to cause a fire fight. Lissa and Hunter make it to the back doors just to find multiple North Korean Humvees out in the back lot and guards. "Chaos, we need another way out!" Lissa shouts into her earpiece.

"Go right!" Chaos shouts, "There's a service exit they use for perp walks when they don't want the people seen or shot. Toll, there's a pickup truck just outside the station, it's unlocked and ready to go. Get them."

"On it." Toll replies.

Hunter and Lissa go running down the hallway, watching for anything out of place. Hunter throws the empty clip from his gun onto the floor and pulls another one out.

"Almost there." Lissa huffs out, all the running on top of carrying the heavy communications case is leaving her winded.

It happens quickly, six soldiers appear out of a large doorway, and three go to attack Hunter while three grab at Lissa. Her glock pulled from her hands and her head is slammed against a wall. The blow makes her dizzy and high pitched ringing rings out in her left ear, where her ear piece is. It must have gotten damaged when her head hit the wall.

One of them pulls a rectangular box out from his vest pocket. It's about as long as a pencil and has writing on it in language she doesn't know. He presses a button on the top and then stabs it into Lissa's lower stomach.

Lissa cries out, the box must have been some sort of knife. The pain causes her to drop the communications case and she feels warm blood trickling down her stomach. "What the hell is that thing some sort of Korean Swiss Army Knife? Boxy Stab Stab?" Lissa shouts to them and reaches behind her on the wall, feeling a fire extinguisher, "Have you heard of a Brain Freeze Stop?" She asks them and pulls the fire extinguisher free. She lets out a blast in to the faces of the three men who came after her and sprays it in the direction of the two remaining men fighting Hunter with their fists. "First the freeze." Lissa says and drops the now empty extinguisher and pulls her spare weapon out of her back holster, "Then the stop." She fires a shot into the five men's heads.

Hunter looks over to her and his eyes lock into the wound on her stomach, "Can you move?"

Lissa pulls the buzzing ear piece from her ear and throws it onto the floor near Hunter's foot, "Stomp that." She tells him and then retrieves the communications case from where she dropped it. "We have to go." She puts her free hand down on her wound to stop the bleeding.

"My ear piece is dead too." Hunter says dropping his next to Lissa's and stomping them both to pieces, "Last I heard Toll was nearly in position." He retrieves his dropped rifle from the floor and starts down the hallway with her.

They make it to the doors without anyone getting in their way. Just as Lissa steps one foot on the outside ground pain shoots through her, starting from the stomach wound going up and going down. It's enough to make her pull her foot back inside and the pain stops.

"Lissa come on." Hunter says and grabs her arm.

"Don't." Lissa tells him for when he arm leaves the inside of the building the pain shouts through her again. She yanks her arm back and retreats a few steps into the building. She drops the case and looks down at the wound, "It wasn't a Boxy Stab Stab." She says looking down the perfectly square hole in her stomach, "We ran into these out in Egypt. A whole village of people were enslaved with that to work digging up a tomb. They got shocked every time they stepped outside the designated work zone."

Hunter begins to feel around in his vest for a knife, "No knife, we'll get you to the truck and cut it out there. It's be maybe 30 seconds, you can handle it. I know you can."

"If this is like the ones in Egypt, the further I get the stronger the shock. We saw a man try to run to save his wife from being killed. He dropped to the ground he was in some much pain and then his heart exploded." Lissa tells Hunter, "I can't leave here."

"I can't leave you." Hunter tells her.

"You have to." Lissa says sets the case down and kicks it across the threshold to Hunter, "You need to go and get this back to Chaos, he can handle breaking the encryption. We've been saying since day one we needed someone in on the inside at the prison re-education camp. They'll hold me here for a few hours and when my story checks out that I'm really Skylar Jones they will send me there. Then you guys can bust me out."

"Billy's going to-." Hunter begins but Lissa cuts him off.

"You need to tell Billy that it was my choice. Listen to this; I need you to tell him this is like that subway car in DC. Tell him that exactly. Subway car in DC. He'll understand and he'll know you didn't leave me here, that it was my choice." She turns her head as she hears footsteps in the distance, coming down the hallway. "Now go." She orders him. "Hunter go!"

Hunter lingers for a second, clearly conflicted, but picks up the case. He lets the doors to the exit swing shut and then jams a trash can up against them. He gives her one last look then takes off running to meet Toll.

Lissa stands with her back against the door watching as the Korean's arrive. When they do she drops her last handgun and puts a hand in the air. "Please, they told me if I helped them they'd get my sister back." She pleads. Aside from being a widow, Skylar Jones has a sister in Virginia. A sister listed as taken into a re-education camp there.


	17. Chapter 16: The Woman In The Uniform

**Outside New Orleans Police Department**

"Everyone out?" Billy's voice comes over the com unit in Toll Road's ear as soon as Hunter climbs in and slams the passenger side door of the pick-up.

Toll looks to Hunter and then out the window. He gives Hunter a stern look and his hand reaches for the gun in the holster at this side. He pulls the com unit from his ear, wrapping it up tight in a fist, "Ten seconds and then I let Billy blow your head off if he doesn't beat me to it."

"She got stabbed by some sort of electric fence tracker thing. She said you guys ran into them in Egypt. She couldn't leave so she told me to go. That she can be used in the plan to break Barney out. I didn't have a choice." Hunter pleads, "I didn't want to leave her."

Toll slams his hand, the one holding the com unit against the steering wheel and it smashes into pieces. "Damn it! Fucking damn it." He yells and then throws the truck into drive, "Billy can't know right now, he'll go on a suicide shoot out to try and save her."

Hunter nods and watches as the police station goes out of view and in turn Lissa.

**Upper Levels, New Orleans Police Department**

"Sir, I bring to you one of the rebel fighters." A solider says with a bow as he approaches a man with his back turned to them. Behind him two other soldiers drag a handcuffed Lissa Hollis along.

The man turns with a smile on his face. Right away Lissa knows who he is, Chin Seo, the acting head of New Orleans under the North Korean government. "And who do we have here?" He asks them.

"We ran her finger prints." The first solider says and hands a tablet computer out to him, "Skylar Jones."

Chin Seo looks Lissa over and there's a flash of uncertainty on his face. "Skylar Jones." He repeats and looks over the information on her, "And what business do you have with the Exes?"

Lissa goes to open her mouth to speak but one of the guards kicks her in the back of her knees, forcing her to kneel.

"You show respect." He warns her.

Lissa lets the annoyed look show on her face and then looks to Chin Seo, "My sister is in an reeducation camp. The Exes promised me they'd help her if I helped them."

"And what did they want from you?" Chin Seo asks.

"I'm a high school computer teacher; they thought I could hack your communication device. I told them I couldn't but they wanted me to try." Lissa explains.

"I see." Chin Seo says and then looks to the solider, "Good work, bring her to room 17."

**Construction Site, New Orleans**

Toll pulls the pickup truck up to the rendezvous point. The SUV Billy and Caesar took over is already there and waiting for them.

"What the hell happened?" Billy shouts as soon as Toll opens the door to the truck, "You all went dead."

"Billy." Toll begins as he gets out of the truck and Hunter follows.

Billy looks from Hunter, to Toll, to the now empty pick-up truck and back to Toll. "No, no, no." Billy says softly, feeling his hand reach for the pistol at his hip. His mind is racing; he'd kill as many of them as he could. By now they'd be taking care of the wounded and preparing the dead to be shipped back home. He could get at least a few dozen before they even realized what was happening.

"She's alive." Hunter says right away, seeing the wild look in Billy's eyes. The look of a man ready for a suicide mission.

"You know those nasty shock implants we ran into?" Toll asks, "The Korean's got ahold of them and Lissa got injected with one. There was no way to get her out without killing her. You know I would have done anything, you know Hunter would have. There was no way."

"Her cover story will hold up." Caesar tries to assure Billy, "She'll be okay, she's been threw worse."

"And now we have our inside person at the re-education camp." Toll says, "We'll get her and Barney together."

"I don't like this." Billy says kicking at a rock on the ground, "I don't like that she's there. Not one bit."

Hunter clears his throat and looks to Billy, "She says it was like the time in DC. The subway car. She told me to tell you that."

Billy shakes his head and puts his ear piece back in his ear, "Jasmine, I need you patrolling the transport units out of the police station. They have Lissa."

"What happened in the subway car?" Hunter asks looking to Toll.

"Lissa sacrificed herself to the Spanish Flu to save us all. She made it out of it, but it was a close one." Toll explains.

**Interrogation Room 17**

Lissa sits handcuffed at a table in an interrogation room. The North Korean's have made changes to the place, including the addition of a cot in the corner of the room and a bucket near the door she doesn't want to know what it's used for. There's no clock in the room and the little window built into the door offers her little of a view. She taps her foot against the table as a way to count out the time.

If she had the ability to jump more than half an inch, she would have, when the door opens. Lissa can tell the person is a woman, by her frame. She holds a silver tray of food and makes sure the door is shut before she looks to Lissa.

When she does it takes all of Lissa's self-control not to gasp. Standing in front of her Maggie in a North Korean uniform.

"Food." Maggie says in a thick Korean accent putting the tray of food down in front of Lissa. She only lets the eye contact last a second, but her message is clear. Hang tight. Maggie then leaves the room without another word.

All this time they had been thinking Maggie had been taken or killed, now Lissa realizes Maggie was working as a mole.


	18. Chapter 17: Traitor

**Interrogation Room 17 in the New Orleans Police Department**

"How many times do I have to tell you? My name is Skylar Jones. I only worked with them to help my sister. They said you'd kill her." Lissa pleads, letting desperation and hysteria lace her tone. There's no clock in the room, but the rumbling her stomach tells her it's been at least a few hours. A few hours of the same questions, over and over again.

"Let me ask again, who. are. you?" The Korean solider in charge of questioning her asks. He has a file for Skylar Jones right in front of him from running her finger prints. Since Skylar is a teacher it made sense for her prints to be in the system.

The questioning comes to a halt when there's a knock on the door. The solider rises in walks another one. He pulls in a scared and dirty looking woman in an orange jumpsuit. Lissa recognizes her from somewhere but she can't place it.

"Who is she?" The solider who had been questioning Lissa asks the woman.

The woman looks to Lissa, there's a flash of recognition and then a flash of sorrow. "Alyssa Hollis. She's a part of a group of mercenaries the CIA sometimes outsources to." The woman answers, shaking as she does so.

"Can you prove it?" The first solider asks.

"There is a file on her on my computer you confiscated. She'll be under Agent Tessa Andrews. It's an FBI alias set up for her over a year ago." The woman says and then looks to Lissa, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry. I have no choice!" She cries as the solider who brought her into the room drags her out.

"Last chance who are you?" The solider asks her.

"Taylor Swift." Lissa answers. She keeps her voice calm and even, but inside she's freaking out. If they figure out who she really is, then her whole team and Barney are at risk. She now knows where she knows the woman from. She's a CIA agent who worked under Church helping provide The Expendables with whatever credentials they need. That woman is a threat to all of their security. Even though she knows it's useless, Lissa pulls at her metal restraints. All that happens is the cold metal bites into her wrists. She lets out a frustrated sigh, resting her head on the table top, this was not part of the plan.

**Toll's Louisiana Safe House**:

Billy lays in his and Lissa's bed in the safe house. He's in a state in between awake and asleep. He knows he should be sleeping so he's at his best to bust Lissa and Barney out of the prison but at the same time he's worried about her. While being held against her will isn't something new to her, it's something painful to remember. Being drugged by Sedov, having her hand nailed down to a table by Garrett, having her first wedding ruined and then ultimately being shot in the chest by him. He knows his wife can handle anything thrown her way, but he can't help but worry one day all of this will be the straw that broke the camel's back.

There's two quick knocks at his door and then Chaos enters, "Billy you awake?" He asks the words coming out in rapid fire.

"What's up?" Billy asks reaching over to turn on the bedside lamp.

"I found one of the people you told me to be looking for." Chaos tells him. Now with the room light up, Billy can see Chaos has a bit of a twitch to him. The type of twitch that comes from too much caffeine. He knows it from the handful of days Lissa was up straight working on hacks for missions. Something tells him Chaos won't be sleeping till Lissa is back and Barney is with her.

"Who?" Billy asks, curious. He hopes its Lee, they need a fast driver. Though Gunnar and his craziness wouldn't be bad either.

"You'll just want to see. Come." Chaos tells him and then heads down the hallway, to the room he claimed as his.

Billy grabs a t-shirt off the foot of the bed and heads down the hallway. Chaos' room glows with multiple computer monitors, answering the question as to why they were filling up the generators so often – this room was an energy sucker. "Who Chaos?" Billy asks.

"Yin Yang." Chaos answers and then points to the largest screen, "You're not going to like it."

Billy looks to the computer screen and there is Yin Yang in a North Korean uniform outside Parish Prison. He shuts his eyes and takes in a breath, "Maybe he found a way in, a way to work the inside." Billy suggests.

"He was in Japan at the time of the invasion. There's a day unaccounted for, but he's then seen at a North Korean army base. He was sent to the US that night. He's been working for them ever since as a foot solider. He has no real purpose other than a translator for those who need it." Chaos answers, "I did some digging, he as a brother-in-law who is North Korean."

"Maybe he was forced, he has a family." Billy suggests.

"They are all accounted for in Japan." Chaos answers, "And then, he was seen going into the police station and minutes later Lissa's real name was run through the CIA system."

"Yin's dirty." Billy answers. If they know who Lissa really is, they won't move her to the reeducation camp with Barney, they'll move her somewhere else. Somewhere far away, where they can't find her. Find. "We need to move." Billy tells Chaos, "Yin knows this safe house. Start packing."

Billy then goes running down the hallway banging on Toll, Hunter, Jasmine and Cesar's doors, "Pack everything! We need to move." He shouts, "The safe house is blown!" He ducks into his and Lissa's room, grabbing a pocket knife off the dresser. Billy makes a mental note to apologize to Toll and then takes the knife to the wood on the back of the door. "COLT." He carves into it. If Lissa manages to escape before they can bust her out, she'll come here and she'll see this. She'll know where to find them.


	19. Chapter 18: Barney's Plan

**Parish Prison New Orleans, Louisiana**

Earlier that day Barney Ross got the prickly feeling on the back of his neck that comes from being watched. He looks out to the woods and can spot the quick flash of a sniper rifle scoop. He nods his head slowly. Message received.

That's why it's no surprise that night when a North Korean comes for him. "The dryer is jammed again; we need you to fix it." The solider tells him.

"Alright, alright." Barney answers and pulls on the supplied pair of sneakers. He follows the solider into the prison and down to the prison laundry room. Where a tool box sits in front of one of the large dryers, along with another solider holding a rifle. That solider shares a few words, in Korean, with the one who brought Barney in. That one leaves, leaving him with just the new guy.

"You really going to make me fix this thing?" Barney asks nodding his head to the dryer.

"It's an easy fix, just a shoe jamming things up." Yin Yang answers.

"Things have been working out well." Barney tells him.

**Barney's Farm House New Orleans Louisiana**

**Just Before The Invasion**

Barney looks up from Maggie's motorcycle, "You really ought to treat this baby with more respect." Barney tells her and drops a stick that had been jammed up inside in front of Maggie, who was sitting on a stool with a beer in hand. They had been out in the garage attached the house for about half an hour now.

"I was testing the off road potential, never know, it could come in handy." Maggie answers with a grin, before taking a sip of her beer, "If it's too much for you to fix, I'll do it myself." She teases.

"Not a chance." Barney tells her. His phone starts ringing on a table close to Maggie, "Toss me that will you?"

Maggie grabs the phone and tosses it over to Barney, but not before looking at the caller ID, "It's Yin."

"Yin Yang, the kids driving you crazy?" Barney asks with a laugh.

"Barney, this is important." Yin tells him. His tone is serious, something that Barney rarely hears.

"What's going on Yin?" Barney asks.

"I heard from my sister, it was the first chance she got to warn me. The North Koreans are invading the United States any minute now. They had information on all of The Expendables, her husband was able to delete the pictures for everyone, but not the full files. He was interrupted when deleting your picture. They killed him. Junior, my son, was able to recover footage to back all this up. Barney they are coming for you and they'll hit all the addresses for everyone else. You've got minutes. Run." Yin orders.

The words hit Barney hard, his face is unsafe. He allows his mind to spin for just seconds and then a plan forms in his head, "They'll be going to lock up all the powerful people, ADA's, those in government, cops. It's the smart thing to do, that's why they wanted The Expendables. No one to lead no one to fight. We can't let that happen Yin. Everyone on the team is far enough away, they'll be safe and they'll find a way in to fight. Until then, we need someone on the inside to help get the leaders out." Barney then looks up to Maggie, who heard everything Yin said, "So listen to me, I'm going to let them take me. Yin I need you to find a way into the North Korean army and I'll need your help in getting people out. Maggie, I need you getting everyone together that's able to fight. Keep them safe until we're ready unleash hell. You understand?"

"I do." Yin repeats.

Maggie hesitates by then nods, "I do."

Barney hangs up the phone and then smashes it with the wrench he had been using to fix Maggie's bike. He climbs to his feet and walks over to her, "You need to get out of here, now." He tells her. He can already hear helicopters in the distance.

"Barney." Maggie begins to protest.

"We get you of this, I'll marry you." Barney tells her and then kisses her. That's when the power goes out.

"I'll hold you to it." Maggie tells him and then takes off running from the garage with Barney in tow. They grab hidden weapons from all over the house and Maggie grab some food and medical supplies. The helicopters are louder by the time they are done.

"Go." Barney orders her as he grabs a loaded rifle off the kitchen table. In the few seconds he has left, he leaves a message on the kitchen wall for Lissa and Billy, then all hell breaks loose.

Parish Prison, Louisiana

"Did you get his family?" Barney asks Yin. Tonight they were smuggling Ian Keller, the district attorney Barney friended in his early days at the prison.

"His wife and two daughters, yes." Yin answers, "Low Jack helped me smuggle them out yesterday. We'll get Ian out tonight. He's already in the prison morgue with his death listed as a heart attack from all the strenuous work. He'll join the others in Mexico. Low Jack says they are almost ready to begin their revolt both physically and calling on allies to help."

"Good." Barney answers, "We should get the mayor out next."

"I agree, Sunday night. If you don't see me out in the woods with the sniper rifle, it means a change of plans." Yin tells him, "After the mayor Barney, we should consider getting you out. I haven't been able to contact Maggie or Tool. I have Junior hacking the North Korean's system here trying to find traces of them, but I think they are captured."

"Until we have enough power players to help fight back, I'm not going anywhere." Barney tells him.

"Barney there's something else you should know." Yin tells him, "They captured Lissa tonight. I don't know much. Only that a member of the Exes was captured, unhurt and brought to interrogation. I saw a picture, it's Lissa."

"Find out everything you can okay? If you get a chance to bust her out, you take it." Barney tells her, "Even if it means blowing your cover here. Lissa's as much as a power player as the mayor, maybe more now."

"I understand." Yin tells him.


	20. Chapter 19: Alyssa Hollis

**Interrogation Room #17 in the New Orleans Police Department**

Lissa keeps tapping her foot against one of the metal legs of the table she's still chained down to. Fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, one minute. That makes it forty-three minutes since someone has come back to the room. Just a few more than that since her cover was blown. Her eyes have scanned the room multiple times over her in time in there, looking for the best way out. Unless she's uncuffed and tackles down a guard to get a weapon, she has no chance at getting out. Not without help and Maggie might not be enough help.

She's startled for just a second when the door opens and in walks Chin Seo with a solider at his side. "Is he who I speak to about my accommodations? For a five star like this, I at least expected a mint on the table." Lissa know she needs to keep Chin's focus on her rather than Billy and the others.

"Uncuff her." Chin orders the solider, who complies right away. When he steps back, Chin pulls a little metal box, about the side of a pack of gum, from his breast pocket. "You see this?" He asks Lissa and holds it up, showing the single button on it. He then presses it, a shock of pain rushes through Lissa from the stab wound in her stomach. "Don't try anything." He tells her. He then steps closer to her, "Get her on her feet." He orders.

The solider grabs ahold of Lissa's shoulders and pulls her to her feet.

"Is this the part of things where you try to immediate me?" Lissa asks raising an eyebrow. She rubs at her wrists, sore from the cuffs, "Because it's not working. Sure you have a zapper, but I've been through worse. I know worse."

"I know that Alyssa Hollis has been through worse." Chin says and closes the distance between them, "I just need to make sure you are really her. You know the CIA, can't really trust them."

"Spooks, suits and North Koreans, can't trust any of them." Lissa says with a shrug, "That's the motto I live by."

Chin simply raises a hand and back hands her across her cheek. The unexpected blow sends Lissa stumbling back a few steps and her back rests against the wall. He moves quickly pinning both of her hands against the wall. "Enough with the remarks." He tells her, his breath hot on her face. He looks over to the solider, "Hold this wrist." He orders and the solider complies.

Now with a hand free, Chin grabs at the necklace chain around her neck. He pulls it out of her shirt until the charms at the end come into view. Her compass and Billy's wedding ring. He flips the compass over but the coordinates that were once there are scratched away.

"I wouldn't think about taking that if I were you." Lissa warns him, "It didn't end well for the last guy."

Chin leaves the necklace be, for now, and then looks her hands over. His gaze stops at the circle scar on her hand Garret nailed down to the table. "They saw that Alyssa has a scar on this very hand from a nail." He says. He then lefts up the sleeve of her opposite shoulder, seeing the five pronged needle mark from her Spanish flu vaccination. "And one of these from stopping the Spanish flu. They also say there is a third."

Lissa feels her breath catch in her throat; the only other scar is the one on her chest. The one from the bullet Billy fired at her chest to protect her. She doesn't like where this is going. She knows enough about the brutality of the North Koreans to know she should be getting afraid now. She looks over Chin's shoulder and to the little window built into the door of her room, hoping to see Maggie.

"Getting nervous?" Chin smirks, "Guess I'm the one having the fun now."

"Go to hell." Lissa fires back at him. "Let me make something clear to you. Everything you do to me will be done five times over to you. And that I can't wait to see."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Chin says pulling a knife from his belt. He holds the blade up into her line of vision and then pulls it back, ready to thrust at her chest. Lissa lets out an involuntary cry but just before the blade hits her skin, Chin slows it. Instead he only cuts away at the shirt she's wearing. Leaving her there in her black pants and a black bra. Chin rests the point of the knife on her bullet wound scar. "Why hello Miss. Hollis." He greets. Chin locks eyes with her for a few seconds before walking away. "She'll be hard to break for information, give her the same treatment as her neighbor next door." He then leaves the room.

The soldier releases his hold on Lissa's arm and then looks her over. "Welcome to hell you dirty American." He tells her in a thick accent.

Lissa feels her whole body shaking and her breaths are quick but she still manages to make it clear she's not terrified. "Did you have a friend named Ding Dong, maybe Ring Ding? I can never get your names right. Either way I killed him." She spits back.

"You'll be singing another tune real soon." He says and then leaves the room.

Once alone, Lissa finds herself sinking down to the floor. She pulls her knees up to her chest and tears forming in her eyes. An escape can't come soon enough; she wants to be back at Toll's, safe with Billy. The room is filled with just the sounds of her rapid yet jagged breaths. Lissa tries to use the silence to silence herself, but the silence only lasts for seconds.

High pitched ringing begins to ring out in the room from a speaker in the corner opposite the security camera. She climbs to her feet looking for a disconnect wire for the speaker. Instead she finds all the wires encased in cement, fresh cement. While the security camera in the room was put there by the police, the speaker was put there by the North Koreans. Put there with the purpose of causing sleep deprivation. Lissa never dealt with it, she knows Barney, Gunnar and Lee all have. She finds herself even more worried now. She can go a few days without sleep, she's use to that. But more? She isn't sure what will happen.


	21. Chapter 20: HACkimER

**Authors Note: Even though today is my birthday, I couldn't leave you guys without an update. This chapter, including the character of Kim, are dedicated to LCDRFireFly your extremely kind words and praise are much appreciated.**

**Billy and Lissa's Safe House, New Orleans Area**

"Three and a half days, quickly approaching four since we last had a visual on Lissa." Billy says as he paces the computer lab in the safe house. It was something Lissa set up months ago and much more advanced the makeshift lab at Toll's house. "Chaos! Four days! Where is she? They've moved prisoners to the camps since then and the morgue is empty other than Koreans. So where is she?"

Chaos looks up from the silver communications case that they had stolen the night Lissa was captured. "Billy." He says with a hoarse voice. His eyes are blood shot and his hands shaky from too much caffeine. He blinded reaches out on the main keyboard hub where soda bottles, energy drink cans and quick-to-eat food wrappers are scattered about. He grabs a lukewarm orange soda and chugs at it. "I'm doing everything I can. You tell me to find Lissa, I'm working on that. You tell me to break the encryption on the box, I'm doing that. I'm one person, one hacker. I can't do everything on my own. I'm not Lissa. I need help."

"Then is there someone you can trust?" Billy asks, "Some we can get to help? Someone close."

Chaos looks up from his soda thinking, "There's one person. I don't know if they have her yet. HACKimER." He says, "Kim, for short. She's one of the best in the area. She can handle finding Lissa while I work on the box."

"Get an address. We'll get her." Billy says, "You have half an hour." He then leaves the lab.

Chaos lets out a breath, closes his eyes for a few seconds and then begins typing.

**Interrogation Room #17, New Orleans Police Department**

Like Chaos, Lissa is finding the lack of sleep draining. Her hair fluffs around her face in many directions, a side effect from trying to use to cover her ears to allow for a few seconds of silence. Her eyes are blood shot and she looks pale. There's been aspirin hidden in her food, a gift from Maggie, but it does little to combat the constant noise causing a headache. Especially when combined with the knocking on the wall next to her.

"Stop it!" Lissa screams forcing her hands over her ears.

"Easy little sister." A voice says from the middle of the room.

Lissa looks up and finds herself blinking to see if the figure in front of her is real. Despite multiple blinks, he is still there. "Derek?" She asks. Derek Hollis, her foster brother who taught her how to hack years ago. The same Derek who was killed helping her escape from Sedov and Garret when she first met Barney and the others. "Did the Koreans take you?" She asks, confused. Things aren't adding up but her mind is too tired to focus on it.

"Something like that, Liss." Derek says with a grin. He doesn't look different from when she last saw him a year before she got busted by the FBI. His black hair hangs just a bit on his forehead and his green eyes are bright with life. His jeans are clean and the short sleeve flannel shirt shows signs of being worn at least overnight. Classic Derek."We need to get you out of here. Don't you think?"

"No use." Lissa says and flops back on the spot in the corner of the room she's made her bed. Well as much as a bed the floor can be. "It's no use. It's too much, Derek."

Derek lets out a laugh, "You told me that about the first solo hack I put you on. You were so nervous you could barely hit the right keys, you remember that? But you did it. This is just like that." Derek says and then steps beside her, putting his hands on her cheeks, forcing her to look into his eyes. "You need to focus on the problem and tune out the distractions. Tell me the problems."

"The zapper in my stomach. It would need to be cut out or disabled at the very least. I'd need a way out that door, not just one gun from a downed guard will do it. Plus they have the camera watching me; they'd see a surprise attack coming. So that option is out. Not to mention we're in the headquarters of the North Koreans in this area. This isn't finding a backdoor into Pizza Place's online ordering system to get free pizza Derek."

**Billy and Lissa's Safe House, New Orleans Area**

"Kim, meet Billy." Chaos says looking to the largest video screen where a video chat session is set up with HACkimER. She's a petite red head who looks young for her age.

"It's a pleasure to meet a friend of Chaos'. I didn't know he had any." Kim says with a grin.

Billy can't help but grin, Chaos having friends is a stretch, "Glad to hear you're safe in London. Looks like you picked the perfect time for a vacation."

"Right, a vacation." Kim says looking to Chaos, sharing a glance, "More of a working vacation, but I'm freed up now. Chaos says you need my help?"

Billy wants to ask if her working vacation has anything to do with a robbery at the Henley Musem in London but decides against it – they need her help. Instead he grabs a picture of Lissa off the nearby whiteboard, it has all of the information they know leading up to when Lissa was taken and the North Koreans standard protocol for prisoners. "My wife was taken during a raid at the North Korean base. That was four days ago and she hasn't surfaced the re-education camps or the morgue. She should have been moved by now, so we don't know where she is. Chaos is working on a project of his own. We need someone watching for Lissa, facial recognition, tracking, everything. The police station, where we believe she's being held, has a secured connection we can't crack but Chaos is working on that. For now I need someone looking for Lissa, can you do that?"

Kim pauses thinking it all over, "It's a big mess over there in the States. I don't want to be dragged into it. I'm lucky to be here in London." She gives Chaos another weary look, this wasn't what she signed up for. "If your wife is the type of person who the Koreans want to keep, I don't know if I should be getting involved with this. Who knows if they'll come for London next…"

"Kim, you know Lissa, well of…." Chaos says, "Lissa Hollis is Anyanka, the hacker. She's one of our own, she needs us." There's a sense of revived life in him, the exhaustion fading away.

"Send me the picture and enough funds for takeout and coffee. I'll get working." Kim promises.

"Thank you." Billy says and can't help but think, there really is honor among hackers.


	22. Chapter 21: Morse Code

**Authors Note: Thank you all for your kind reviews and birthday wishes. I am glad you all are enjoying the story. My apology for any lacks of capitalization, my shift key is about 90% broken which causes issues. But I couldn't leave you guys without an update!**

**Interrogation Room #17, New Orleans Police Department**

Lissa sits with her back against the wall in the corner she claimed as her bed. She's rocking herself back and forth slowly as a way to keep track of time. They've started giving her generic meals, like sandwiches, so she has no clue if it's day or night. Her ears continue to ring from the nonstop noise and her mind if fuzzy from the lack of sleep.

"Come on little sister, what next?" Derek asks as he leans up against the table in the room. "We know the step count from every point in the cell to the door. If a riot happens, you'll be ready to run. But how do you get out without one?"

Lissa looks up at him; she stretches her arms behind her head trying to wake herself up. The motion makes the underwire of her bra dig into her skin. It's been bothering her for days now. Or is it hours? Months? She doesn't know. That's when it clicks in her head. She fiddles with the fabric holding the underwire in place, but it won't give. So she pulls off her compass necklace, opening up the clasp. It's not sharp like a knife but sharper than her fingers. She rubs it back and forth on the fabric till a part of it rips. "Would this work?" She asks looking to Derek as she pulls just about an inch of the wire free. It's thinner than a USB cable but thicker than dental floss. She can only guess it's less than two feet long, but it should be enough, "Will this work?" She asks Derek.

"I think." He answers, "But don't pull it out now, they need to be surprised."

Lissa nods and tucks the nub of wire sticking out away. Even tired her mind begins to wonder if she'll be able to go through with slitting someone's throat with the wire. Some of The Expendables, especially Lee, use the tactic on a regular basis. She doesn't, she doesn't like the brutality of it for it reminds her of Garrett and the nail to her hand. Lissa looks down at her own hands, a part of her expects to see them red just at the thought of getting blood on her hands, but they are normal. Her eyes lock on the scar on her hand, which she then moves to her Spanish Flu inoculation and then to the bullet wound scar on her chest. "Pitch black." She whispers out to herself. Lissa allows herself a minute to think about Barney, to wonder if he's in a room like this two or if it's still in the prison. Or maybe he's free? No, he's not free. If he was she wouldn't be here.

When her interrogation room goes silent all of a sudden, it scares her. The noise has always been there, except for when some solider questioned her in broken English.

Chin Seo walks in with a woman in a lab coat as well as a few soldiers. One of them crosses the room, grabbing Lissa and pulling her to one of the chairs by the interrogation table.

"Stay calm Liss." Derek warns from the corner of the room, but even still Lissa finds herself growing on edge – like a wild animal cornered by people. Her heart rate increases when the solider cuffs her to the table.

"You've proven to be much difficult." Chin says to her, "I need to know where The Exes are and don't have time to wait for you to break. So I'm speeding things up." He then nods to the doctor.

The doctor hesitantly steps forward then fills a needle with a bottle from her pocket, "Sodium pentothal." She explains.

"No!" Lissa screams and begins pulling at her restraints. If they get Sodium pentothal, better known as truth serum, she won't be able to stop herself from giving up Billy and the others locations. She'll be defenseless. She quickly stands up and kicks her chair at the doctor, knocking the woman to the ground. "I'll never tell you anything! I'd rather die!" She screams at them.

Chin Seo grabs her by her hair and slams her face down onto the table. The blow catches her right eye the hardest and she falls to her knees with blurred vision. "Doctor, another try please." He says.

Lissa's head throbs now from the lack of sleep and the blow. But it isn't the same constant throb, instead there's some sort of pattern to it. Long short long short, short short short short, short short long, short long short, long short long short, short short shot short. Then it repeats. That's when her mind pieces it together, Morse code. C.H.U.R.C.H. She glances towards the wall the knocking has been coming from. She knows who her neighbor is now, but before she can worry about them having Church a foggy memory flashes before her eyes.

It's nighttime at Barney's farmhouse, just days after they took down Sedov and Garrett. Her mind then is foggy as she sits at the kitchen table with Barney and Church.

"Are you sure about this?" Church asks looking to Barney.

"Anyone who comes after us will see her as the weak link, someone to be taken. While I know she can handle that she can't handle the consequences that comes with truth serum. Giving the team up and any of us getting hurt or killed will destroy her." Barney says, "I don't like doing this, I don't like keeping it from her. But it protects her."

"Alright then." Church says and looks to her, "Lissa, I need you to listen carefully to me. If are you ever injected with something the people say will make you talk, make you tell the truth. You won't. Instead you will tell them you are Shannon Darling from New Jersey. Just repeat that over and over until the drug leaves you system. Do you understand?"

"Shannon Darling." Lissa repeats and feels it lock away in her mind. Whatever Church injected her with, make her agree to this.

Lissa looks up at Chin and lets out a loud laugh. While she's pissed at Barney and Church for using some CIA mind control drug on her, she's glad they did. "Let me save you the trouble of all the questions you'll ask." She tells him as she feels the cold truth serum making its way through her system, "Shannon Darling from New Jersey." She tells him. She then feels her whole body relax like she's in a dream. Her eyes close but her mouth keeps repeating what she told Chin seconds before. He won't get anything else from her.


	23. Chapter 22: The Lone Wolf

**Authors Note: A special thank you to the Guest/Anonymous reviewer who said that my story was worthy of being made into a movie. Thank you so much, your kind words have made my week. Also a shootout to Lup, your review every update always makes me smile. Thank you for being such a dedicated reviewer.  
**

* * *

Lissa comes to an unknown amount of time later. The room is empty of Chin, the doctor and the soldiers. She's on the floor with a bandage over the needle mark in her arm. Enough time has passed that the truth serum is out of her head for she's no longer repeating what the CIA mind mumbo jumbo programmed her to say. How long does it take for a drug to wear out of your system? Hours? The sleep that came from the drug was more of being passed out. She feels just as tired as she did when Chin came into the room.

The door to her room opens and the noise stops. A guard brings in a plastic tray of food for her and sets it down on that table. That's when Lissa hears the familiar, and in this case comforting, sound of gun fire. A warning alarm, similar to a fire alarm, goes off and strobe lights flash throughout the building. Soldiers go running down the halls with weapons raised. The gun fire stops and for a moment there is only the sound of a wolf howling loud enough to be heard over the alarm.

"Wolves?" The solider asks looking to Lissa as he shuts the door to the room. "How did your team get wolves?" He pulls the control panel to her shocker from his pocket, "Hands in front of you, reach for me." He orders reaching for a set of handcuffs from his hip.

Lissa complies and takes a few steps closer to him, "I don't know if there are wolves in Louisiana." She tells him, "I do know that my team wouldn't take the risk of wrangling up wild wolves to let loose in here. Too much of a risk of one of them getting bit or rabies."

The solider grabs ahold of her arm and shoves her up against the wall near him. He grabs his walkie talkie from his breast pocket and says something in Korean into it.

"You see my team, they are like me. They'll take all the bad they've been through, all the sadness, all the torture and all the hate. Then they bottle it all up, so when they need it they can go pitch black." Lissa explains and then pulls the bra underwire free from her bra. "They didn't bring in wolves; they brought in a wolf, The Lone Wolf to be exact." Lissa informs him and then spins around looping the wire around his neck. Despite being exhausted and weak the adrenaline helps her fight against his grip. Blood blasts out when the wire hits an artery and its only seconds before the solider falls to the ground dead.

Lissa stands there for a moment looking down at the dead solider. Her face and all down her chest is warm and sticky from his blood. Her hands are covered in it as well, along with some of her own from where the wire dug into her palms. "Derek." She whispers and looks around the room, but he's not there. It sends a ripple of fear through her; Derek helped her make this plan. Without him she doesn't know if she can make it out. Lissa lets out a scream and then heads for the door her to cell banging on the door. She needs air, she needs away from this.

Through the little window she sees hope – Booker. He comes walking down the hall, like he's out for a stroll in the park, with his gun firing. He spots Lissa through the door and signals for her to move back. He fires onto the lock and pulls the door open. "Lissa." He says looking her over and then the dead guard.

Lissa looks to him, wondering if this is real or fake. Could this all just be a dream from the truth serum?

"Hey Lissa." Booker says softly, approaching her slowly like one would approach a scared animal. He pulls a CD sized white hard patch from his pocket, "We need to disable that shocker so you can make it out of here. This will do that. Can I?" He asks pointing to her semi-helped stomach wound.

Lissa gives him a nod and watches as he hooks the white hard plastic patch against her stomach. It emits a small zap, like a static shock after running around on carpet with socks on. After all the shocks she's dealt with over her time in capture, it's just enough to be annoying. The little bits of pain does help clear her mind a bit. This is real, it's not a dream. "Booker." She says looking to him with pure hope in her eyes. "We need to get out of here." It's the understatement of a year. There may just be more North Koreans than the infamous Lone Wolf can handle on his own.

"I agree." Booker says and then pulls two pistols from his back pocket, "You okay to shoot? Let's go." He says after Lissa gives him a nod.

Yet Lissa doesn't follow behind Booker when he takes off running down the hall. She stops at the door next to her interrogation room and looks inside. There is Church, leaning against the interrogation table dressed in boxers in a dirty dress shirt. Like Lissa he's bare foot, but looks even more sickly than her. "Booker wait." Lissa shouts, "We need to take him too. He saved everyone." She says thinking back to the mind control whatever he used on her to prevent the truth serum from working.

Booker doubles back and pulls a spare plastic patch from his pocket, "Good thing I brought a spare huh?" He then smashed the control panel with the butt of his gun, freeing the lock to Church's door.

"Let's go." She orders Church, who is quick to comply. Lissa hands him one of her guns and lifts his shirt to put the patch on. She's just securing it into place when she hears Booker let out a warning yell.

"Don't shoot. I'm a friend." Maggie says peeking out from behind a stone column to let Lissa get a look at her.

"She is." Lissa confirms to Booker.

Booker lowers his weapon and lets Maggie join them. "We need to get the second floor, there's a zip line waiting for us. You two up for it?"

"See Korean, shoot Korean." Church says and readies his weapon.

Lissa follows suit and finds herself forming a small grin at her new found sense of control which comes from having a gun. From having the upper hand over the Koreans with Booker, Maggie and Church at her side. The only thing that would make her feel better is if Billy and Barney were there. "I'm ready to checkout of Hotel Hell. Food sucks."


	24. Chapter 23: The Escape

**Chapter 23: The Escape**

**Three Important Notes:  
1. I want to let anyone reading who is effected by the Boston bombings that I am sending warm wishes your way. I was working just about ten minutes away when the bombs went off and was left unhurt thankfully. I did struggle with the idea of posting a chapter today in light of all the violence yesterday. But I found myself deciding to for to me The Expendables are the good guys, the guys who stop the bad guys and I thought that we all good use a little of that.**

2. I'm still having shift key problems and need to replace my whole keyboard later this week. If you see anything that isn't capitalized and should be please let me know in a comment. 

**3. I've found myself with an idea for a Lissa origins story, nothing long just a chapter or two. It would be a look at Lissa's life before she was caught by the FBI and cut a deal to work for them instead of going to jail. There would be a short cameo from one Expendable, but would mostly be just Lissa. Would you guys be interested in reading?**

**New Orleans Police Station-**

Together the group makes their way down to the hallway and to the second floor of the station with very little trouble. Which is a good thing consider it takes Church and Lissa at least two shots to take down targets with their weak and shaky hands. Booker shuts them into a conference room with a large glass window overlooking the street below.

"Home Base this is The Wolf, I've got myself three dinner guests for tonight. Are we still all good." Booker asks, using a finger to press an ear bud closer in his ear, "Setting the table now." He pulls a can of spray paint from his pocket and sprays a large x on the window, "Maggie, flip that table for me will you?"

"With pleasure." Maggie answers and flips the conference table over with a little help from Church and Lissa.

"Get behind the table." Booker orders and the four crouch down behind it, "Send in the guest." He says into the ear bud. Seconds later the window smashes and large hook is shot into the wall behind them. Lissa takes one look and realizes from it's the zip line gun that Caesar had developed just before they rescued her from Sedov. That means there's an Expendable working with Booker and she finds herself curious who it is. "Time to fly kids." He says getting to his feet, he hands off marker sized pieces of metal to each of them. "Snap them."

Lissa does so and finds the metal to expand to the shape similar to a triangle with a small opening at the bottom. It will allow it to hook onto the zip line while providing handles. That's a piece of tech Caesar doesn't have yet.

Maggie places a hand on Lissa's shoulder softly but quickly pulls it back when Lissa flinches, "You ready for this? You okay?" She asks with concern in her eyes.

Lissa gives Maggie a small nod. "I'll be right behind you." She tells Maggie. Church has already gone down the line while Booker stands watch at the door, clearly going last. Her answer appeases Maggie enough that she heads down the zip line after giving Lissa a second glance. With Maggie far enough away, Lissa tucks her gun into the back waistband of her shorts and clips her zip line piece onto it. She takes in a breath before stepping out of the window.

Her landing is a bit rough and she struggles to keep from falling down. Lissa straightens up and looks around the street near her. Sometime in the last few days select business near the station had power restored to them, shop windows are lit up with lights and TVs and street lights are on. With the exception of Korean propaganda and guns firing nearby, the block seems more like it did before the invasion.

The familiarity does little to soothe her; instead she finds her heart racing and her palms sweating. Lissa can hear her own heart beating her in ears as she looks around the block frozen in place. She spent every minute that she was in that police station making plans with Derek to escape but she didn't spend a single minute thinking about what it would be like outside. The air is fresh and warm, not the air conditioned recycled air that pumped through the station. The loud ringing of the intercom meant to keep her awake is gone, but now there is a whole new set of sounds. Gun fire, cars, people yelling, music from a distant car radio and even engines idling – it all feels deafening compared to the noise she heard of days. She feels tears forming in her eyes as she gasps for breath trying to comprehend the world outside of Interrogation Room 17.

"Alyssa." A firm voice shouts from right in front of her. It takes Lissa a few blinks to realize there is someone standing in front of her, a man, Lee. "Put it down, please." Lee tells her looking out at her hand.

Lissa follows her gaze and sees the gun she had tucked into the back of her pants sticking out, it's directed near Lee's shoulder. She has no memory of pulling it out, let alone aiming at anyone. She looks up above her and the zip line is gone, Booker must be out of the station too. "Lee." Lissa says, her voice sounding hoarse now from the lack of sleep and the need for a drink. She lowers the weapon and holds it out to him with the trigger pointing down. "Lee."

"We're getting you out of here, but we need to go now." Lee tells her taking the gun, tucking it away from her view. "Come on." He then puts an arm around her shoulder, leading her towards an idling black van.

Inside she sees Maggie, Booker and Church as well as Lacey and Tool. A string of thoughts hits her tired brain fast. Tool. Tool had Remy and Colt while she and Billy were away. Billy. Lissa lets out a small cry of emotion and looks over her shoulder. It takes her a few glances but she finally spots a security camera that doesn't belong to the police station. She looks her gaze on it, stumbling to walk with Lee while not paying attention to her steps. She knows Billy will have Chaos watching every available video feed for her. She needs Billy to know she's out. Lissa can only hope that the ten seconds or so of her glancing at the camera is enough for Lee leads her into the van and shuts the door quick. He disappears to the front with Lacey and soon the van is speeding away from the station.

"Hello there." Tool says to her with a small smile. He gaze goes to the patch on her stomach, "We need to get that thing out of you now, Lissa. The patch won't work that much longer. Do you understand?"

She does and she gives him a small nod.

"Good, now I need you to lie back." Tool says and reaches into a hard white case next to him, pulling out a pair of latex gloves that he puts on.

"Here, Lissa." Maggie says scooting behind her, allowing Lissa to rest her head in Maggie's lap. Lissa does so and finds herself realizing how tired she really is.

"Alright." Tool begins looking towards Lissa as he fills a syringe with liquid contents of a bottle, "This will put you out for a couple of hours. Just a quick pinch in your arm."

Lissa feels her heart rate speed up and her breathing become quick. She's no longer in the van, but back in the interrogation room with the Korean doctor, Chin and the bottle of truth serum. "No!" She screams knowing she has to protect Billy and the others. "I won't tell you anything! No! Kill me." She's screaming and fighting off the pair of hands that tries to contain her.

"Maggie, hold her." Tool orders but to Lissa it is Chin doing so. A pair of hands holds Lissa down and she begins to fight hard, kicking, screaming and hitting at anything she can reach. She feels the pinch in her arm but still continues to fight. She still continues when her movements get lazier and weaker and her eyes heavier. Then all goes black.


	25. Chapter 24: The Promise They Made

**Billy and Lissa's Farm House**

Chaos is awoken from his nap by the sounds of fire alarm and his computer screens flashing like strobe lights. Adrenaline pumps through his system, stronger than any caffeine he could drink. "Kim." He says and stumbles out of the cot he had set up in Lissa's computer room. He enters a command into the closest computer and then Kim appears on the largest screen.

"I've got her." Kim says. The petite red head looks tired and in need of a shower. Her red hair is pulled back into a greasy ponytail with her clothes looking slept in. From the little of her workspace Chaos can see, it's covered in foam coffee cups. "I've got Lissa."

"Where?" Billy asks, before Chaos can. The noise of the alarm must have caught his attention from down the hall.

"Downtown, you were right, they kept her in the police station." Kim says, but there's no excitement in her tone. She should be excited her job is done and a fellow hacker is free from the Korean's. Instead Kim looks stressed and on edge. "Chaos, can we speak alone?" She asks glancing to Billy and then back to Chaos.

"Show me the footage." Billy demands, "You can talk when were done, every second we waste is a second gone for Lissa. She needs our help. Now."

"Chaos." Kim stresses looking to him.

Chaos looks back and forth from Kim to Billy unsure of what to do, who to side with.

"Show me my wife now." Billy demands. His voice is firm and that of someone in charge and someone you don't tell no to.

Kim pauses, locking eyes with Billy before letting out a sigh, "Don't say I didn't try to warn you. Now my job is done, I'm moving out to a new city. Chaos you'll know how to reach me." She says and types a few things on her keyboard. The screen fades away from Kim and into a grainy surveillance camera feed.

Billy is aware of Hunter, Caesar, Toll and Jasmine all filing into the room, none of them speak, they just watch.

The footage shows Lissa standing in the middle of the street on one side of the police station. She's barefoot in the combat pants she was wearing the night she allowed herself to be taken, along with a tattered black bra. Even in the low light, Billy can make out the dark substance covering most of her face, neck, chest and hair to be blood. He can't make out any wounds that are hers and he can only hope that it is Korean blood. There's a medium size white patch on her stomach, where he can only assume the shocker was injected into her.

There's a flash in the video and Booker goes running by, yelling something to Lissa. She doesn't move an inch; she's just standing there, a sitting duck for any Korean to shoot. "Move." Billy finds himself whispering, even though he knows this is recorded footage and she couldn't even hear him if it was live.

Lee Christmas comes into view, speaking to Lissa. Billy wishes he could make out what Lee says for whatever it is causes her to pull a gun on him. Her arm shakes and the gun isn't even aimed towards his head or heart. "Something's wrong here." Billy says, feeling panic and worry rush through him. Lissa wouldn't pull a gun on a teammate unless she had good reason.

"She's what's wrong." Jasmine says stepping closer to the screen, "Put it down Lissa, you're okay. It's okay. You're out of there, we're here to help. Come on, Lissa." She lip reads from the video. "They've fucked with her head." Lee calls over his shoulder, "Alyssa! Put it down please."

Lissa finches and then seems to come to, it takes a few seconds but she lowers the gun and hands it off to Lee. Lee takes the gun and leads her to a black van. The vans speeds off and disappears into the night, away to a part of town without power which means no cameras.

"We need to find them." Billy says, "Caesar, Toll, I need you thinking of every place Lee would go in this area as a safe house. Jasmine you and Chaos look over the footage, see if you can find anything that could hint to where they came from. If there is anyone with them, I want to know who they are. Give the names to Caesar and Toll. Hunter, prepare for us to take off. We get a location, we go." Billy orders and leaves the computer room. He doesn't wait for questions or concerns; he can't focus on that right now. He doesn't stop walking till he reaches his and Lissa's room. He shuts the door and locks it behind him.

There behind closed doors he feels himself breaking down. The image of Lissa terrified, bloody and half-dressed out in the street keeps flashing in his mind. He's mind races to worse case scenarios of what it all could mean and he finds his stomach going sour. He just makes it to the bathroom when he finds himself throwing up. He hated himself for not preventing Garrett from nailing her hand down in the abandoned farmhouse over a year ago. Lissa tortured and hurt it disgusts him with himself. They suspected she has still in that police station, he should have gone in there days ago with guns blazing, he should have saved her sooner rather than waiting. Blind rage takes over him like pitch black darkness. Every Korean in that police station needs to die for what was done to Lissa. The only way to ensure he kills them all is to get the one man who will be just as angry. Barney.

Billy leaves their bedroom and heads outside to the garage. His mind his two missions get Barney, then kill. He grabs two duffle bags of weapons, without checking what they are and throws them into a stolen Humvee.

"Billy." Hunter says, "What are you doing?"

"They need to die." Billy tells him and rounds the Humvee to the driver's side. He opens the door just to find the passenger side open and Hunter pulling the keys from the ignition. Hunter grabs ahold of the keys and throws them from the garage and out into the front yard.

"You need to calm down." Hunter shouts to him.

"You don't understand." Billy shouts and finds himself climbing through the Humvee heading straight for Hunter. He delivers a kick to Hunter's chest and it knocks Hunter out of the Humvee and to the ground. Billy jumps down beside him, "Stay out of my way." He then heads for the yard in search of the keys. He's so focused on finding them that he doesn't hear Hunter come running up beside behind.

Hunter throws himself on top of Billy and knocks them both to the ground. "You need to calm down." He shouts and continues fighting as Billy tries to get up. In the process, Billy takes a blow to his right cheek. "She needs you. She needs you alive. Not dead on some suicide mission do you hear me?" He shouts.

The words 'suicide mission' break the rage and Billy finds himself thinking back to the promise he made Lissa. He unclenches his fist aimed for Hunter's head and reaches down to the necklace chain around his throat, there he feels Lissa's wedding ring. The anger seems to evaporate through his veins and he finds himself feeling weak, scared and lost. He's no different right now than the image of Lissa on the computer screen that still haunts his mind.

"We find her and then we make plans to kill them all, okay?" Hunter asks.

"Okay." Billy repeats.

**Authors Note: In case anyone missed it, I have an idea for a Lissa prequel set before she was based by the FBI and made the deal to work for them instead of going to jail. It would be short, maybe a few chapters, and would feature an appearance by at least one Expendable. Would you be interested in reading?**


	26. Chapter 25: The Real, The Fake

**Abandoned Factory, New Orleans. **

Lissa wakes up and unknown amount of time later and for the first time since she was taken by the Koreans over a week ago it's quiet when she wakes up. Right away she finds the quiet scary; she's so use to waking up to noise and thinking through the noise now it's quiet. It's deafening. The room she's in is rundown with the faint scent of dirt and dust. The window in the room is boarded over on the outside leading her to believe it's some abandoned building.

She sits up on the bed she had been sleeping in, more of a military style folding cot than a bed, but still better than a floor. She's in an oversized black t-shirt with a pair of loose fitting shorts on. There's stirring in the bed and she realizes, she's not alone. Curled beside her is Colt with Remy on the floor. Seeing them brings a swell of emotions to her as well as tears to her eyes. "Hi guys, I've missed you." She tells them giving them both a generous scratch behind their ears.

With the dogs' content, Lissa turns her attention to herself, she lifts up the shirt and looks at her stomach where now a bandage is taped down over where the shocker had been stabbed into her. It's sore to sit up and even more sore to the touch, but she can feel the shocker is gone.

A glass of water is on the floor by her bed and she greedily drinks it down, wanting more to drink and more to eat. She pads over to the door with her feet bare but just as she gets there her mind flashes back to the interrogation room. The dirty dust room fades away to the bright, clean and sterile smelling room in the police station. The fear she felt there floods back into her system and noise rings through her ears. "Stop it!" She screams putting her hands over her ears. "Derek. Help." She pleads.

The door to the room opens and her mind flashes between the real and the fake. One second it's Maggie and Tool standing there the next it's Chin and a Korean solider.

"Lissa it's okay." Maggie/Chin tells her. "Look at me, it's not real." She grabs ahold of Lissa's wrists pulling them away from her ears, "Listen to me Lissa we're trying to help you."

Lissa looks to Maggie wide eyed, the noise fades away but her mind is torn between reality and the fake world her mind has made up. "You're not real." Lissa cries. The only possible solution her mind can come up with why she's seeing two things at once is somehow the Koreans got past the CIA mind mumbo jumbo control and are implanting things in her head. Tricking her that she's among friends to tell them where Billy and the others are. To tell them every plan the Exes made. Lissa being on edge causes both dogs to being barking and growling, which doesn't help the situation.

"Lissa, darling, we are real." Tool tells her softly, "You're stronger than this, fight it. I know you're tired I know you're weak. But you've never given up before, so don't give up."

Maggie looks to Tool, a somber look on her face, "I think we need Billy. He'll be able to get through to her."

"Lissa, where's Billy? We'll get him for you." Tool says. Since they set up camp in this abandoned factory on the outskirts of New Orleans they had been trying to find Billy, Lissa and the others. With no clue as to the location of Toll's safe house nor Billy and Lissa's, they were left guessing.

Lissa's mind flips to the fake reality her mind as made up and she looks to Chin, delivering a kick to his right knee cap and throwing a punch at his face. The movements cause her stomach to scream out in pain but she doesn't care. "I won't tell you. I'll never tell you." She screams. As she grows angry the flashes between the real and fake come quicker and quicker and only confuse her more.

**Parish Prison, New Orleans**  
Barney is now located in a prison cell in Cell Block B. He doesn't like being confined to the small cell and finds himself constantly pacing and doing push-ups. He's rarely let out of his cell now, which worries him greatly. He hasn't seen Yin since the night he informed him that Lissa had been taken. He can only hope that Yin was able to rescue Lissa and blew his cover. Though there's been little talk of the Exes.

Every time a guard walks by, Barney looks for glimpses of the world on their phones and tablets. A part of him hopes to see a message from Lissa or another Expendable, but there's never anything there. He's starting to regret letting himself being taken. Barney Ross doesn't like sitting out of a fight.

He's in the middle of a set of crunches when guards drag a half conscious man pass Barney's cell. Barney finds himself looking at the man and it takes all of his self-control not to make a noise. The man being dragged past him is a badly beaten Yin. Yin glances at Barney, just out of the corner of one eye. It's quick and then he looks to the guards dragging him.

"You'll never win. The American flag will fly free. American will be free. You'll be dead. You may have us caged like dogs but that won't last. There's a songbird just ready to be free."

The message sounds like nonsense and babbling to them but to Barney the message is clear. Lissa is still in custody. Songbird was a codename they had use for Lissa in a mission just before they all took a break.

Barney finds his hands balling up into fists. His only connection to the outside world is gone. Lissa is still in Korean custody and he's locked in a jail cell. His doesn't know where half is team is and the other half have gone silent.

**Somewhere Outside New Orleans **

Gunnar sets a plane down in a farmer's field, making a note to one day apologize for destroying the crops, though they look a little dry which makes him wonder if the farmer has been taken into Korean custody. He climbs out of the small plane he had flown in and finds himself stretching. The plane was awfully cramped with him inside, much like being a clown car. It didn't help that he had another oversized passenger.

"So where are we going?" Trench asks, stretching as he climbs out of the plane, "And next time, I'm demanding first class accommodations."

Gunnar cracks a smirk, "First we need to get Betsy somewhere safe then we look for the others."


	27. Chapter 26: Wandering

**Authors Note: I would like to send a special thank you to the guest/anonymous viewer who said my stories should be used as the script for an Expendables movie. Your kind review, along with others, has made my week. I would love to be involved with a script for The Expendables, especially if it meant bringing Lissa to life in some way or form.**

Also, this chapter touches upon some of the content of the Lissa prequel I plan to release next week. It does leave you with more questions than answers, so you'll just have to check the prequel out!  


**Abandoned Factory, New Orleans Outskirts **

Two days have passed since Lissa had been rescued from the police station and things only look worse.

"You did what?" Lee shouts and finds himself grabbing ahold of the T-shirt Church is wearing. Church just explained that a possible reason for Lissa's difficulties between telling what is real and fake could be the mind control protocols he put into her head after The Expendables took down Garrett and Sedov.

"Barney told me to do it." Church coughs out, his face starting to go red from the lack of air, "I told him everything I knew about Lissa and he agreed."

"Lee." Lacey says and looks to Church, disgust on his face, "Let him speak, you can kill him after if you still want to." Since the invasion, the normally perky Lacey has become a bit hardened and a bit like an Expendable. Not because she wanted to, but because she needed to.

"Get talking." Maggie orders Church when Lee releases his grip on Church's shirt.

Church clears his throat, shoots a glance to Lee then looks around the room, "When we took Lissa onto the CIA, we did a full psych evaluation. We found that she possesses an unusually high level of guilt. It was enough to raise a red flag. She never would have been allowed into the CIA if it wasn't for her hacking skills. Before the FBI arrested her, she did a very public hack and in the process a partner of hers was mortally wounded. She spent her time after committing cybercrimes trying to help his family with money and to honor his memory. She felt his blood was on her hands. When the FBI finally found her, she was unable to focus without caffeine and popping Adderall like it was candy. She was a very different person." Church explains, "She only got over Derek Hollis' death because she had The Expendables to focus on. If she didn't have you guys, I fear she would have been right back to her old ways. When I told Barney about this, he worried that she would never be able to live with the guilt of sharing information on The Expendables even if under the influence of truth serum. So we made that impossible. But it was a trial process we used; we don't know the full effects. Her inability to tell the difference between what is real and fake could be from that."

The room goes silent as they all take in the idea of Lissa a criminal, of possibly being responsible for someone's death. Someone not the loyal and caring teammate they've grown to know.

"So how do we fix it?" Tool asks, "You put it in her head you can take it out right?"

"I need sedatives, a special drug concoction and a set of protocols to reserve it." Church explains, "All of it is in the CIA. The Koreans have the offices all locked down, no way we can get in and get it till this is all blown over."

"What about an offsite location?" Maggie asks, "Even if this is a trial, there should be an offsite location with even just a small amount."

"Maybe in Michigan, but I can't be sure." Church says, "We don't have the manpower to fight here, find the others and get to Michigan. We have to find them without her."

"I don't like this. I don't like it one bit." Tool says and disappears from the makeshift meeting room, heading down the hall to the room Lissa is in. A part of him hopes, enough kindness and a familiar face will break her out of the mixed realties. It's to his surprise he finds the room empty and opens the door to Maggie's room, the closest room. The boarded over window is missing a few boards. "She's gone!" He shouts, "The dogs too."

**Unknown Area In The Woods, New Orleans**

Lissa Hollis walks through the woods in a pair of untied Korean solider combat boots. There's a pistol gripped loosely in one hand while the other grips her compass necklace. Her eyes are cloudy and unfocused while her movements aren't deliberate. If anything she looks a bit like a zombie hunting for a victim to chow down on. For the first time since she was rescued from Sedov's hold, she's wandering. Colt sticks to Lissa's side while Remy is a few paces ahead, clearly watching for anything out of the ordinary.

"Come on Liss, where next?" Derek asks as he walks alongside her.

Lissa stops and tucks the gun into the waistband of the shorts she's wearing. Her eyes are a bit more focused now as she opens the back of the compass. There is a folded piece of paper in her handwriting. It's what looks like computer code to the untrained eye, but to her isn't that. Hidden in it is a set of coordinates. Coordinates she wanted hidden from anyone but her. "We keep going east." Lissa tells him.

She had found the piece of paper early this morning, just before Church told the others what he did to her head. Lissa kept the discovery to herself, not knowing if she could trust them. She didn't know what to do until Derek appeared before her, telling her it was time to go home. That's when she escaped out of Maggie's room, grabbing the gun and boots.

Now away from everyone and with her mind focused on getting to the coordinates her mind doesn't flash between the realities. It's making it easier for her to figure out what exactly is real and what is fake.

"Do you know where this goes?" Lissa asks him, her mind foggy with the answer.

"A good place." Derek tells her, "Now hide the paper and keep walking."

Lissa nods, takes the paper hiding it inside the compass and then continues walking.

**Abandoned Factory, New Orleans Outskirts**

"All the vehicles are here and only one gun is gone." Lacey reports.

Booker comes in from outside the factory, "She's on foot, there's a trail into the woods. She made no attempt to hide it and it's just her tracks and the dogs."

"Where would she go?" Maggie asks, "She doesn't know where she is."

"The fucking compass." Lee says, remembering seeing it hanging from her neck the night they busted her out.

"Church any possibility the Koreans got in her head?" Lacey asks, "Could they have told her to escape with us and then give them our location?"

"Doubtful." Church says, "But still a possibility."

"Booker, Lee, follow her trail. She's got maybe half an hour head start on you." Tool orders, "Maggie. Lacey get monitoring the cameras around here, see if you can spot her heading into town or any Koreans just lingering around. Church? You're telling me more about the offsite storage in Michigan."


	28. Chapter 27: Waking Up

**Authors Note: Be sure to check out the Lissa prequel, which posted last night, entitled "The Hack". Clearly set before "What We Become" it's a look at the hack that made Lissa, better known by the hacker handle Anyanka, well known in the hacking world but also the FBI. This is the crime that put her on their Most Wanted Hacker list and without it chances are she never would have met The Expendables. It also features the appearance of two Expendables characters in minor roles.  
**

* * *

**Billy and Lissa's Safe House, New Orleans**

"Chaos picked up on multiple motion sensors in the northeast perimeter tripped." Jasmine says to Billy, Hunter and Caesar while loading a handgun. "Three were tripped simultaneously, leading me to believe there are three of them out there. A scouting party maybe." She clicks her gun into place and looks to the boys, "Let's go."

Outside the house, dusk is just beginning to set but storm clouds hide the color. Wind blows the drizzling rain, just obstructing visibility a bit.

Toll speeds up next to them on an ATV made silent after a few moderations, "I checked the main roads, nothing. Didn't see any helicopters in the air either."

"I don't like this." Caesar says, "Too quiet out there."

Billy pulls walkie talkie from his waist, "Chaos can you scramble all radio and cell lines in the area? If the Koreans got missiles online, I don't want the scouting party to be able to get word back." He looks to his team outside, "See Korean, shoot Korean. Try to keep them alive, we need information from them." They all then disperse to various hidden high points in the yard, ready for a fire fight.

Thunder rumbles in the distance as Billy secures his sniper rifle in place. He finds the tension fading away from his body as he goes into what he calls sniper mode. Every muscle focused on making the shot, not worry about his team or anything else. He breathes out slowly, readying his finger on the trigger. A flash of lightening cracks in the sky just over the northeast corner of the woods, but it's not the unexpected flash that makes him jump.

From a small clearly Lissa steps forward with Remy and Colt at her side. The dogs raise their noses up into the air, sniffing the wind while Lissa looks distracted, lost. Her black shoulder length hair blows behind her in the wind and the oversize t-shirt clings to her skin from the light rain.

"Liss." Billy finds himself whispering out in a gasp, the shock causes his finger to twitch and he lets go of the trigger. His muscles tense and he has just enough time to jerk the barrel of the rifle up so the shoot goes too far to the left to hit anyone. But the damage from the shot is done.

Remy and Colt hunch into defensive positions, growling with their teeth barred. The distracted look remains on Lissa's face, but she does backtrack a few steps, raising a gun.

"Stand down!" Billy finds himself yelling. He can hear guns lowered and the others emerge from their hiding places.

Hunter's the closest to Lissa, "Lissa, hey." He says, there's relief on his face and happiness in his tone. Remy and Colt, not knowing him dive at him. They circle him, boxing him in, with their barred teeth.

"They'll kill you faster than a bullet." Lissa snares out, turning her gun on Hunter, "So don't move."

"Lissa, it's me, Hunter." He pleads with her and then shoots a worried look to the others.

"Remy! Colt." Billy orders, giving two snaps of his fingers and pointing to the spot next to him. Remy is quick to obey the other, while Colt looks to Lissa first. When there's no protest from her, the dog runs to join Remy at Billy's side.

Hunter locks eyes with Billy and gives a quick hang gesturing, asking if he can take Lissa down in a tackle.

Billy's just about to give Hunter a nod when he fully notices Lissa. When she first appeared at the opening of the woods, he was distracted just by the sight of her. Now he sees the black eye and the bruises on her paler than usual skin. He notices the gun in her left hand, her non-dominate hand. The distracted lost look on her face he first wrote off as someone scared, clicks with him. He's seen it once before, outside Barney's farmhouse. "Don't." He orders Hunter, "She's wandering. Right Liss? You're wandering. It's time to wake up." Billy tells her, "Lissa, wake up."

Lissa keeps the gun on Hunter and looks to Billy. Her chest rises and falls a bit more rapidly and confusion forms on her face. And then just for a second, Billy thinks she's going to pass out. Her whole body goes near slack and her eyes close. But then she jerks forward like she was pushed from behind with her eyes open. She doesn't look at anything else around, just him. A choked cry leaves her lips and she drops the gun. She then runs towards him, tears falling down her face.

Billy drops his sniper and runs to close the distance between them faster. And then he has her in his arms. Her legs wrap around his waist and he can feel the bare heels of her feet dig into his back, the oversized boots lost in the run. Her whole body shakes as she cries into the side of his neck. He finds himself closing his eyes, resting his face in the crook of her shoulder, silently thanking every god he can think of for this moment.

Lissa suddenly goes tense in his arms and pulls back to look him in the eyes, "The others." She says and then looks over her shoulder, "How long could I have been?" She wonders to herself. How long had it been since she left the safe house Tool had set up? Did they track her by now? Would they find her? Could she find her way back there?

"What others?" Caesar asks stepping beside the two along with Jasmine, Toll and Hunter.

"Lee, Lacy, Tool, Maggie, Church and Booker." Lissa says, "They busted me out, they're out there somewhere."

Toll looks to Billy and gives him a nod, "Caesar and I will go, and we'll follow her trail."

"Rains going to come in quick." Caesar says and the two hurriedly head off to the ATV's.

Lissa puts a hand to her forward, "I don't remember leaving. I don't remember how long ago or even if it was today. I don't know. I can't help." A sense of desperation leaks into her tone.

"Don't." Billy tells her, "You were wandering; nobody can expect you to remember a thing. You wandered and you found me. It's a damn good day as far as I'm concerned. Let's get inside, I'm sure you're hungry."


	29. Chapter 28: The Arrival

**Chapter 28: The Arrival **

**Lissa and Billy's Farm House**

Just over an hour later Lissa finds herself sitting on the end of the bed in hers and Billy's room. Her hair is damp from the shower and she's brushing it out. Remy and Colt are asleep in dog begs in the corner of the room, letting out the occasional loud snore. Billy's fiddling with the buttons on a pair of shorts. A sense of contentment washes over all of them.

"I've been seeing things." Lissa says, letting out a small sigh and then looks up, finding Billy's gaze in the mirror that hangs over the dresser. "Ghosts, not only seeing them but also having whole conversations." She tells him while thinking of Derek. "And seeing things that aren't real but were once real kind of. I keep flashing back to that room, to being there, to them."

"Well you're here, with me and I'm real." Billy tells her and then turns to look her head on. "Bat shit crazy or completely sane, I could care less. You're here." He then sits down on the bed next to her, taking the hair brush from her hands and dropping it on the floor. "Okay?"

"Okay." She tells him feeling tears in her eyes. Despite everything, nothing has changed between them. "Billy we need to stop them."

"And we will." Billy tells her, seeing the exhaustion on her face. He eases her back onto the bed, "In the morning, we'll get on stopping them."

"Billy, we need Barney." Lissa says, "We need to get him out there."

"And we will, in the morning." Billy promises her, "We'll have the others by then; we'll be close to full force." He pulls the blanket over them and wraps an arm around her waist.

"Okay." Lissa tells him and finds her heavy eyes closing, "I love you."

"I love you too." He tells her and kisses the side of her head, but she's already asleep when he does.

When morning comes there is more life in the safe house than there has been since The Exes first arrived. Now Tool, Maggie, Church, Lee and Lacey are here along with Lissa. Caesar has his work cut out for him cooking breakfast, especially since he spent most of the night following Lissa's trail with Toll. But the exhaustion doesn't show, only happiness at being reunited with old friends. Barney's in jail, Gunnar is unaccounted for, and Maggie shed light on Yin and Barney's plan making Yin no longer a traitor.

Remy and Colt come bounding into the kitchen with Lissa following only a few paces behind. Billy had left her sleeping up in their room when the smell of pancakes and bacon became too much for his hungry stomach to take.

"Morning." Billy says to her, a smile can't help but form on his face.

Lissa shoots him a smile and then her glance falls on Church who is at a countertop filling a cup of coffee. She crosses the room to him and shoves him up against the wall. The force knocks his coffee cup from his hand, causing it to shatter on the floor. One hand finds its way to his throat. The whole room goes silent at her actions.

"See." Lacey says looking to Billy, "I tried to warn you all."

"Lissa." Billy says, but doesn't get up from his seat.

"Sane." Lissa says to him, keeping her eyes locked on Church, "When this is all done, the very first chance you get, you're taking whatever you did to my head out. You understand me? I do not appreciate having my head spook-mind-fucked."

"Note taken." Church coughs out.

Lissa holds his gaze for a second longer than releases her grip, "Clean that up by the way, this is my home not a barroom." She tells him and then turns her back on him, going to the table to join the others.

There's silence from everyone, expect for Lee who lets out a loud laugh. "You spooks might own The White House, but you certainly aren't the kings of this house." He says over his shoulder to Church. It gets everyone at the table at least back to eating and their conversations.

"So where do we stand on the Barney front?" Lissa asks looking to Billy, as she grabs a handful of toast from a basket in the middle of the table.

"We know he's in a cell block, which means prison break." Lee answers, "I've got a few ideas for that."

"More like all of my quote useless unquote time spent watching Prison Break, has a few ideas." Lacey says looking to Lee, half-teasing half serious.

Then everything comes to a standstill, for the second time that morning, as the front door is kicked in. Guns are pulled from holsters, pockets and hidden places under the table and all aiming to the only door offering access to the large kitchen.

Two sets of heavy footsteps make their way down the hallway and into the kitchen.

"Security system doesn't work too well when it's shot down." Trench says with a laugh as he walks into the room with Gunnar. He fists bumps a laughing Gunnar.

"Don't worry we brought a gift for the host and hostess." Gunnar says giving them all a grin, "So what's for breakfast? We are starved."

"Okay how did you two bozos find his place? Even Maggie, a former spook, couldn't find it." Caesar says looking to the two.

"MIT remember?" Gunnar says pulling up a chair to the table. "By the way, I've been fine. Thanks for asking."

"North Korea is kind of nice this time of year." Trench says, pulling up a chair as well. He grabs a platter of bacon from the center of the table and begins piling more food on top of that, "Though we didn't have much time for sightseeing, we were too busy pouring a new chemical that renders nukes useless into all the Korean's missiles."

The room goes quiet again and everyone looks to Gunnar and Trench, shocked.

"What?" Lissa asks.

Gunnar gestures to Billy, Hunter, Jasmine, Caesar and Toll, "While you all were busy doing like explosions to the Koreans, we were busy making sure they couldn't blow us up."

"Somebody get those damn boys a drink." Tool orders and seconds later Caesar puts down two cold beers in front of Gunnar and Trench.


	30. Chapter 29: Where We Began

**Authors Note: Thank you to all who checked out the Lissa prequel, "The Hack". Glad you enjoyed. If you didn't catch who appears, Billy and Maggie as well as Kim the hacker who helped them find Lissa in this story. I don't think anyone noticed that one. So to explain it, Kim got into hacking after that day. She took on the job to help find Lissa because she owed Lissa favor. It was her presence that led to the ending of "The Hack" and if she hadn't of been there things would have been different. For those curious if Billy and Lissa will realize they met before The Expendables, you shall see.**

**New Orleans Police Station**

A bruised Lissa Hollis with a half-moon black eye strolls down the street leading to the Downtown Baton Rouge Police Station. Weeks ago it stopped being a police station. It was a place once associated with safety, now only fear.

"Remember the plan Liss." Billy says to her through the com in her ear. She knows he doesn't like her walking into that station, not after how she came out.

A gust of wind sends her dyed black hair flying around her face and pulls at her black knee-length trench coat, causing her to pull it tighter with her hands. "All in position?" She asks.

"We're good." Billy answers.

"Be safe, love you." Lissa tells him.

"Love you too." Billy repeats.

With that Lissa pushes open one of the glass doors to the station. She takes a second to watch all of the occupants bussing around about their business. Some drag prisoners dressed in the orange jumpsuits those in the containment camps wore to the back interrogation rooms. The thought of those rooms makes goose bumps form on her arms. She pushes away the unpleasant memories before they can begin to flash before her eyes. She has a mission to complete.

Lissa takes in a breath and walks to the front desk with her head held high. She doesn't have a single fear, even though she's walking into enemy territory. The solider at the front desk looks at her, a slight look of recognition flashes on his face. She knows he's trying to place how he knows her. "Hi, how are you?" She asks him and unbuttons the few buttons of her trench coat, keeping it closed with one hand till they all are undone. "You're gonna' want to page your bosses." She then lets the trench drop from her shoulders and to the floor.

That's when it's revealed Lissa Hollis is standing in the middle enemy territory with a bomb strapped to her chest. It's the very reason why she has no fear. She grabs a gun from her thigh holster and fires a shot up into the ceiling. "Everybody listen up!" She shouts and holsters the weapon, "This vest is a very unique bomb. There are multiple fail safes, including it being hooked up to a heart rate sensor. My heart stops, it blows. My team is listening as well, they hear a shot, this vest blows. So nobody try to be a hero, that'll just end messy."

"You're doing great Liss. The others are moving into position now. Buy us sometime." Billy says to her.

"So you all are going to want to get comfortable, pray to God, or do you people pray to nuclear bombs? Don't know, don't care." Lissa tells the room.

**Parish Prison New Orleans, Louisiana**

Barney Ross stops mid push up when the intercom speakers in the cellblock crackle to life. Instead of some more North Korean propaganda, it's a familiar voice.

"Hong Kong, Ching Chong. No substitutions." Gunnar says over the intercom in a bad North Korean accent. Then the lights in the prison, which the Korean's had restored power to, flicker off. The lights begin to flicker back due to the emergency generators but those too cut out. Barney knows it has something to do with the boom he heard in the distance between the emergency generators clicking on and then off. Toll Road blew them up.

Barney climbs to his feet and makes sure the standard prison issue white tennis shoes are tied tight. This is going to get interesting.

"We are The Exes. We are the fight. We urge you to fit with us." An American voice echoes over the intercom. It's not one Barney recognizes. He does recognize the fear on the faces of the North Korean soldiers who serve as guards as they tighten their grips on their weapons and look around nervously. There's a loud buzz and the all the cell doors open up. For a second all the prisoners stand around stunned, looking around at the others.

"AMERICA!" Caesar shouts from the top floor of the prison block and then throws a prison guard over the balcony looking down at all the levels. That's all it takes for a full on riot to begin in the prison. Unlike the riots the prisoners who had been in the cell block before, these people stand a chance for The Expendables are joining the fight.

"Bloody awful color for you friend." Lee Christmas says to Barney as he jogs up to meet him. He holds out a gun and knife. "But it's good to see you."

"Lissa?" Barney asks tucking the knife into the jumpsuit.

"She's out, currently keeping them busy at the police station." Lee then hands over an earpiece, "Hear for yourself."

**New Orleans Police Station**

"You want to know how I know the difference between North Korean and South Korean symbols? North Korean are the ones that look like nuclear bombs." Lissa says to the room with a laugh. She can see a few soldiers getting antsy and sizing up their weapons. "One little noise out of place and we all go boom." She warns. She then looks up seeing Chaos run in an upper level with Hunter.

"Virus implanted, all communications shut down." Hunter informs her, "Heading to rendezvous."

"They've got Barney." Billy says in Lissa's ear, "Time for the grand finale."

"Let freedom ring." Lissa says with a grin, taking in the sight of the terrified North Korean's. It makes her flash back to the fear she felt in the interrogation room. She feels her pulse quicken and the itchy feeling in her mind that she felt when being torn between two realities growing. "It's happening again." She whispers putting a hand to her forehead.

There's a crackle of static over the earpieces and then one voice rings over loud and clear. "Lissa, it's Dad. The only place you can go right now is back home. You hear me? I'm going to be waiting for you kid, come home. Fight it."

Barney's voice jolts her from the two worlds and Lissa finds herself focusing on the task at hand. She reaches between her and with both hands pulls free two flash bangs. She throws them into the room and then pulls a flair gun free, firing that up into the ceiling setting off the sprinklers. With the water pouring down, alarms going off and the disorienting effects of the flash bangs, no a single North Korean solider puts up a fight.

Lissa runs from the police station, shedding the bomb vest which was nothing more than a realistic looking prop. Unlike the last time she left here, the North Korean's are the ones feeling scared not her.


	31. Chapter 30: The Program

**Lissa and Billy's Safe House – New Orleans **

The safe house if filled with life. Beers are clanked together, food is being cooked faster than it could be eaten, and everyone is just happy. The team is back together, with the new additions, for the first time in weeks. The computer virus Chaos created after hacking the communications box, shut down all communication lines the North Korean's used in and outside the US to communicate. They made a huge blow to the North Koreans' strong hold over the US.

Lissa and Billy sit out on the back deck in old fashion rocking chairs. They are tossing tennis balls back and forth for Remy and Colt to fetch. Having time to slow down and enjoy the moment is something they haven't had since finding out about the invasion.

"I love you." Billy says reaching over and nudging Lissa's chair with his free hand. "Want to spend forever here with me?"

"Only if we can tell the grandkids that this is where grandma and grandpa hid a bunch of American fighters during the Great Korean American war." Lissa tells him with a laugh. She looks over the yard and finds herself not seeing it as home. The foliage is a little dull and limp due to the warm weather and the grass is littered with burnt yellow spots. "I don't know if this is a forever house. The chairs? Yes. This house? I don't know."

"I'd like something with a little water, like Toll's safe house." Billy says, "I like boats."

The back door opens and out walks Barney Ross. He has a beer in one hand and a lit cigar in the other.

"I'm going to go get Remy and Colt a drink." Billy says and gets up from his seat. He gives Lissa a kiss and a smile then disappears inside.

Barney takes over Billy's seat and takes a long draw of his cigar. "So those Koreans, huh?" He asks with a faint laugh.

"Yeah." Lissa says with a small laugh. She pulls her legs up to her chest and sits letting the chair rock back and forth.

"I never would have let Church put that shit in your head if I knew it could do this." Barney says, "I just wanted to look out for you. Didn't do it for over two decades and of course the one time I do, I fuck up big time."

"It did work; I didn't tell them a thing." Lissa says, feeling herself needing to come to Barney's defense. "Though I'm pretty sure making your kid a lab rat for a CIA experiment is a bad idea. Definitely not getting you a father of the year trophy." She finds herself making the joke to lighten the mood.

"Yeah well, I don't need a trophy." Barney tells her. Silence falls around them for a new minutes, "It bother you much?"

"It's like an inch from poison ivy. Scratching it brings temporarily relief, but only makes things worse." Lissa explains. "So far you and Billy have been good triggers to wake me out of it. It's kind of like the wandering I do."

"Once we take out the North Korean's main hub, we'll get the reversal drug in you. I promise." Barney tells her. "I'd send a team now but we need to strike them before they get a chance to restore communications."

"I know how to do that." Lissa says looking to Barney for the first time since he first sat down out there. "We have to hurt them more than they hurt us. We take their money, their power, their sense of order."

"And how do you propose we do that Liss? I had a lot of time to think in that jail cell and I came up with no way to do it all effectively." Barney tells her.

"The program Sedov had me working on. I finish it and we use it against them to steal all their money. With no money comes chaos. But we'll still need a way into North Korea."

"I don't like the idea of you finishing that program. It'll put a target on your forehead for every terrorist out there." Barney protests.

Lissa lets out a laugh, "Like that's the first time?" She asks him.

"I've got a call out to a friend, Tool's brother Low Jack. He's coming up from Mexico with supplies. We'll see if we have a better idea by then and go from there." Barney then stomps the cigar out, "Sleep on it and then decide if you want to get that program ready."

Lissa gets up from her chair, "Doing stuff, being useful helps the itch." She tells Barney, "I'm doing this, I have to do this." She tells Barney and then heads inside.

Lissa slips past the party in the kitchen and upstairs, heading for her computer lab. She's unused to the safe house layout. She and Billy had bought it only a few months ago from a foreclosure sale so it came nearly all furnished. They did the tweaks they needed and left everything else the same.

Chaos comes out of a bedroom and looks surprised to see her. "Why aren't you downstairs?"

"Why aren't you?"

"I wanted to make sure the Korean's don't find a way to shut my virus down." Chaos answers.

"You did good work with that." Lissa says and then runs a hand through her hair, trying to itch away the sensation in her head. "You want to be a part of hacking history with me? But we'll never make it into any history book or chat room for it. Only this team will know, maybe a few more."

"To hack with you Anyanka it would be an honor." Chaos answers and pushes open a closed door. Inside the room is dark except for the glow of multiple computer monitors. "I did my best to keep it how you had it. I'll fix anything I put out of place."

"Don't worry about it, it's your lair too." Lissa tells him with a small laugh, "I'm going to need your help, your flair with it. What we're going to do is create a program capable of total chaos. I was kidnapped well over a year ago and forced to work on a program capable of mass identity theft and the ability to bankrupt banks. In full force, it could shut down the finances of the target area completely." She explains, "After The Expendables rescued me, I never finished it. I knew it was a ticking time bomb. But now we have to."


	32. Chapter 31: Operation The Last Stand

**White House, Washington DC**

Church sits oddly at ease in the Oval Office. Despite everything that has happened, this room was the first the president took to making sure was fully restored. Church is sure it was done to show that the country is being restored, that the country is strong. Some psychological thing President Harrington's best advisers thought up.

There's a bit of noise outside the door and Church finds himself getting to his feet, reaching for a weapon at his hip that isn't there. Even with the Korean's gone, the shell shock remains. The torture he went through in Interrogation Room 15 will follow him for the rest of his life.

"Good morning Mr. Church." President Helen Harrington says as she enters the Office. She takes a seat behind her desk and gestures for him to sit down. "I have a very busy morning ahead of me, so let's cut to the chase. There is an airplane still smoking on the North Korea and South Korea boarder. The media has been hounding me for an official explanation to what has been dubbed Operation Last Stand. It's being reported The Exes are all dead. I need the truth, I need the story." She demands and grabs a ballpoint pen, resting the tip on a notepad ready to write.

Church sits and takes a breath before beginning. "A friend Low Jack, aided Barney Ross and others in smuggling high profile government figures out of the containment camps created by the North Korean's. Among them was Vice President Fallows, who arrived in New Orleans with Low Jack. It was then that he authorized the mission you are now calling Operation Last Stand." Church begins to explain, "With supplies and orders we headed for North Korea. The majority of the Korean forces were in America, but they still had us out numbered. We made it into the center of town and it was clear that program ROSS was successful. Stores were looted and the power was out all over. If it weren't for the people on the streets you'd think it was an abandoned city. All it took was money dropped from buildings and the streets turned to chaos. That's when we moved in for the Supreme Leader."

**Downtown North Korea**

The Expendables, including the new members who joined The Exes, make their way across the busy streets of downtown North Korea heading for the main building that Supreme Leader was residing in while he oversaw the invasion of America. Rain drizzles down from the sky with thunder rumbling in the distance, though it can't really be heard over the cries of hungry people diving for money throw from rooftops. All it took was one week of the havoc created by Lissa's program to destroy North Korea. ATV's with solid metal snow plow like devices are hooked to the front allowing them to crash through the metal gates surrounding the building. Guns blazing they fit their way through the first line of defense.

"It's a good day for you sons of bitches to die!" Gunnar shouts firing into a cluster of soldiers.

"Not so much fun when it's in your backyard, huh?" Barney yells out.

Despite going into battle there's a sense of happiness among them. They are ending the war between the North Korean's tonight with this battle.

There's the loud bang of a tire exploding, Hunter and Toll are thrown from their ATV. It smashes into Lissa and Billy's, knocking them over. The group lands behind a barricade of sandbags and where a few wounded or dead Korean's remain.

"What's for breaking my fall, buddy." Toll says patting a dead Korean's head and gets to his feet.

Billy helps Lissa up and begins trying to swap out the tire on the busted RV.

"Chaos is still having issues hacking the secure communications system, maybe one of them has a walkie." Hunter suggests to Lissa. Chaos is back on the South Korean side of the boarder working on hacks with Tool and Low Jack – who arrived with weapons, the ATV's and gadgets galore.

A part of Lissa wishes that she was back on the South Korean side working on the hacking as well, but she knew in her heart she had to be here. She had to end this all here. She begins checking the pockets of a dead solider, looking for anything that could be useful.

There is a laugh that rings out over all the noise.

"Die American scum." A North Korean solider, lying on the ground with a stomach wound spits out as he holds an unpinned grenade in his hands.

Lissa and Hunter share a panicked look, hearing the seconds tick by. There's not enough time to throw it, not enough time to run. They are going to die.

"I owe you." Hunter says and then before any of them can stop him, he throws himself on top of the solider, on top of the grenade. "Chaos, be good." Is the last thing all of The Expendables hear over their earpieces before the explosion.

**Oval Office Washington DC**

"First Lieutenant Hunter Clarke of the United States Marine Corp sacrificed himself to ensure the rest of the team could carry out the mission. He died a hero but he wasn't the only one that day. A knife happy North Korean got the drop on CIA Operative Jasmine Day Grant and slit her throat before anyone could stop it. Her last move? She took his knife and stabbed him in the heart." Church informs the president, "Sometime during the battle, I'm unsure of the exact time, we could hear firing over the ear pieces but it wasn't in North Korean. A South Korean solider sold us out and gave up our base. Clide 'Chaos' Clarke and the two men I know only as Tool and Low Jack found themselves in a fire fight. Tool was mortally wounded but still made it out in a helicopter. Chaos crashed the computers and died in battle alongside Low Jack."

Church pauses his story and pulls files out from his open briefcase; all the files bare the names of those he mentioned. He drops them on the president's desk, "Some are detailed, some are just the few details we have." Church informs her, "And I still have more files in this briefcase."

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**Authors Note: Before you guys pick up pitch forks and torches and come for me I'll leave you with a bit of a hint. Barney Ross doesn't trust suits like Church, should you?**


	33. Chapter 32: Come Back Fighting

**Downtown North Korea**

Rain is pouring down from the sky and Lissa Hollis can't help but feel it's appropriate. Her friends are dying in this mission, this last stand for American freedom. The down pouring rain is as if Mother Nature herself is mourning the loss of those who made themselves expendable. Though Lissa can't focus on the overwhelming sadness, instead she's flashing between two realities, fighting to keep from mixing together the real and the fake. In one she's standing alone in front of the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kong Ji and the other she has Hunter standing beside her. Even the rain couldn't wash away his blood staining her pants and bullet proof vest.

"I've lost a lot of friends today." Lissa Hollis hisses out to Kong Ji, "So I'm not in the mood to play fuckign games, you understand me? Or do I need to say it slower?" She delivers a punch to his face as he sits in a computer chair with his hands tied in front of him. She can't help but grin for in the fake reality Hunter lets out a laugh and cracks her a smile. "This is your last chance to willingly stop this. If you don't take it, I'm taking you to the most pissed off city I can think of and letting them string you up for your crimes against America."

"Go to hell." He sneers at her.

"As far as I'm concerned, this place is hell. So I'm already there." Lissa says and then presses her ear piece more into her ear, "I'm ready for that extraction."

"Working on it." Barney's voice comes over her earpiece. His tone his shaky and there's sadness to it. "There was a complication….Maggie."

Without even thinking, Lissa throws a punch into Kong Ji's stomach. "Dad I'm so sorry." She says and then looks Kong Ji who is recovering from the blow. "Actually, here isn't hell. Hell is the plane you're going to be on in just a few minutes. We were ordered to bring you back alive; nobody said all the pieces needed to be intact. And my Dad has every reason to want to cut them off."

**Oval Office, Washington DC**

"While heading to a rendezvous point, Agent Maggie Chan and Barney Ross found themselves under enemy fire. Maggie took a bullet to the stomach that caused internal bleeding. She collapsed just as they made it to the plane and died." Church explains, "It all but destroyed Barney Ross, but out of the patriotic and the pure damn stubbornness to fight the good fight, he pushed on to end this war." Church reaches into his briefcase and drops Maggie's file on top of the president's desk.

**North and South Korea Boarder**

Needing to secure the teams way back into South Korea, Toll and Caesar head for the boarder to fight off the Korean forces that are setting up a road block. Though they were finding, as Caesar put it, the North Korean's are like roaches for every one that you see there's at least two more hidden. Somehow they've put together enough soldiers with able bodied men to make a stand at the border. They have a sizeable force with an even more sizeable weapons supply.

"They've got anti-aircraft missiles." Caesar reports in as he ducks down behind a tree. He and Toll had been opening fire on the North Korean's for about ten minutes now and hardly made a dent.

"I got a peek inside a vehicle, their working to get a drone up in the air. They get that thing up it doesn't even matter if we take out the anti-aircraft guns." Toll says and then lets out a hiss, "Took a few to the gut and I'm running low on ammo."

Caesar lets out a frustrated groan, Toll's all the way on the other side of the Korean's make shift border blockade. There's no way he'll make it over to Toll, "What's the plan?"

"Kill as many as you can." Toll orders his friend, "I'll take care of the drone."

"Toll." Caesar begins to protest.

"I'm not making it back onto American soil." Toll admits, "Least I can do is make sure you make it back my friend. Distract them for me will you, I'll need a minute or so to rig the charge."

Caesar grabs ahold of his gun and begins firing at the North Korean's. A part of him hopes his ever faithful high powered machine gun will take them all down and he'll be able to save Toll. They've all recovered from worse injuries. And then he finds himself with an injury he won't recover from. A bullet pieces into his neck and blood sprays down his arm and chest. Breathing gets hard and his gun too heavy to hold.

The Korean's attention moves from Caesar and to the army Humvee that revs to life and begins rolling towards the blockade.

"I hear you folks like bombs. So do I!" Toll Road shouts out the window as bullets pierce in through the windshield. It's enough of the distraction that Caesar needs to run across the road and over to the Humvee. He jumps onto the step of the driver's side door and reaches into the open window grabbing ahold of Toll's shoulder. "Toll Road and Hail Caesar out." Toll says and then the Humvee explodes.

**Washington DC**

"Toll Road and Hail Caesar, made a massive dent in the border and managed to take out the Korean's drone." Church explains and reaches into his briefcase. Their files join the ever growing stack on the president's desk. "There's something I need your records to reflect Madame President and that it's The Exes are a team who considered themselves expendable for the greater good. But I saw firsthand that there is no length they won't go to if it helps helping one of their own. A part of me likes to think that people like The Exes don't die, they just got to hell to regroup and come back fighting."


	34. Chapter 33: Remembering

**Authors Note: Before computers are smashed, remember Gunnar would call the CIA the Central Mis-Information Agency.**

**Also, this chapter contents mentions of the plot from "The Hack" the one-shot about Lissa's life pre-Expendables and Church. Read "The Hack" first if you don't want anything spoiled!**

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**Downtown North Korea**

"I'm heading to you Liss." Billy reports in over the earpiece, "But, we lost Yin. One of them nearly got me from behind and Yin appeared out of nowhere. In the fight for control, Yin took one to the head. So I put two in the Korean's."

Lissa lets out a multiple labored breaths, running a hand through her wet hair. More friends are being reported dead than alive. More friends are flashing in the fake reality covered in blood while reaching out to her crying out for her help. It's making it almost too hard to focus on the real world, the one where Kong Ji is in front of her.

"I'm almost there. Be ready for a hot extract. Gunnar, Lee, Lacey, Church, I need you all laying down cover fire. We get Lissa, Billy and Kong Ji up into the plane and then you guys. We need to keep those damn bastards from blowing the wings of the fuel supply." Barney orders over the ear pieces as he flies a combat plane over North Korea. "Tool you got enough in you to drop the rope down?"

"I think just enough my friend." Tool tells Barney as he leans against the frame of the door, a rope in his hands. He looks pale and weak with blood soaked gaze visible from his stomach.

"Lissa, head for the roof." Barney orders.

Lissa moves in front of Kong Ji an angry grimace on his face as she looks at the man responsible for all of this. She grabs ahold of his short hair, using that grip to yank him forward. "Time to go to hell." She tells him.

"ALYSSA!" A voice screams out and it causes Lissa to turn away from Kong Ji and to look around the room. Standing near a whiteboard with information on high priority points in America to take over is Velvet Night. The hacker who was killed in her most public hack, someone she hasn't thought about since the FBI put her to work instead of in jail. Lissa knows what she is seeing is fake, but she can't tear her gaze away from him until pain radiates out from her lower spine.

Lissa turns back to Kong Ji who is holding a small silver letter opener coated in her blood. She can feel warmth spreading down her back. He stabbed her where her vest left her uncovered. The reality where her friends are crying for her help rapidly changes to her friends cheering her on to get blood. Rage floods through her system, masking the pain.

"You like stabbing people?" Lissa asks Kong Ji and rips the letter opener from his hands. Her gaze goes onto her hand scarred by the nail Garrett stabbed through it over a year ago. Her dead friends are cheering her on, they want this, she wants this and they deserve it. She knocks him down to the ground with so much force his head cracks against the ground. With him temporarily stunned, she grabs ahold of his bound hands pushing them together so his palms are flat against each other. Lissa grabs the letter opener and stabs it through his hands, forcing them together. She lets out a loud laugh as Kong Ji cries out in agony. "On your feet." She orders.

**The White House, Washington DC.**

Yin's file joins the others on the president's desk and Church clears his throat. "It became clear that Lissa Hollis's mental state was deteriorating. Whether it was from the mind control protocols I put into effect, an effect of the torture she endured at the North Korean's hands or a combination of both, she was losing herself." Church explains, "It's why we're shutting down all tests of the drug Control X."

**Downtown North Korea**

Lissa makes it up to the roof with Kong Ji about the same time Billy gets there. Seeing him breaks her from the realities, but makes her feel her wound. Kong Ji goes up on the pulley line to the plane first and then them.

"We're going to make it out of here." Billy assures her with a small smile. He's holding her tight on his arms to allow them both to make the trip up on the pulley.

Lissa hears a shot ring out louder than the others from the gun fight below. Billy spasms for a second and his grip on her goes just a bit lose. His eyes go wide and then he's coughing out blood. He's been shot and it's bad. "Billy no." Lissa cries, looking up, wishing the plane was closing.

Billy puts a hand up to her face, catching her a handful of her hair, and gives her a small smile. A look of pure wonder forms on his face as he looks at her blood streaked hair, "You're her. The hacker in New York. The one they told me never to speak about. The money." He coughs out.

Lissa looks to Billy and long sense buried memories flash before her eyes. The solider in the alleyway, the one who let her go. The last name on his uniform is the same as her last name now, Timmons. "You let me go." She tells him feeling tears form in her eyes. She always wondered if that solider got away with the money.

"Thank you." Billy tells her and that's all she needs to hear to know he did. "I love you."

"I love you too." Lissa tells him.

Barney Ross looks over his shoulder as the pulley line makes it up to the plane. He had to maneuver it while putting the plane on autopilot when Tool dropped down dead next to Kong Ji. And now he sees there's another to join to Tool and Maggie, Billy.

He watches as Lissa unhooks herself from the harness holding her into the pulley line. She's broken and lost, looking down at Billy, who lays motionless on the plane floor. "Liss?" Barney asks.

Lissa looks up at him tears rolling down her cheeks but a savage wild look in her eyes. She darts for Kong Ji, grabbing a hold of his hair and yanking him to his feet. "No cozy little prison cell for you, no fair trial." She screams out and marches him away from the lifeless bodies belonging to Maggie and Tool. "You killed them, you killed HIM." She continues to scream; "Now you die." Lissa stops in front of the open door to the plane and pushes Kong Ji out.

It's clear to Barney that the woman standing there isn't the Lissa he knows. This is the woman left with nothing but pitch darkness after seeing horrors, experiencing horrors and losing the last person keeping her sane. It's not Lissa Hollis standing on that plane; it's the shell of her.


	35. Chapter 34: The Official Story

**Washington DC**

"Private Billy Timmons can only be described as a good guy. He left the army when he got sick of seeing good people die for nothing. That's something you should take to heart the next time you want to send the brave men and women who wear uniforms, and even those who are like The Exes, to war." Church says and drops Tool and Billy's files onto the desk, "And please, with all due respect, don't get on my ass about Kong Ji." Church tells the president, "I saw his body hit the ground and heard the crack of bones breaking. He's dead."

**Downtown North Korea**

"They all need to die." Lissa tells Barney after shutting the door to the plane and sitting down in the co-pilots seat. She studies the control panel in front of her looking for weapons controls, "Kill them."

"Liss." Barney says softly, "We need to get the others. Then we'll kill them all." He brings the plane around in a loop and drops a few hundred feet so the pulley line will reach Lee, Lacey, Church and Gunnar who are on the ground. Barney is so caught up in worrying about Lissa it's too late for him to react when the planes weapon system picks up on an incoming projectile. A North Korean solider on a rooftop set out a mini missile at the plane. It impacts with the plane, causing it to shutter and chunks of metal to go falling to the ground.

"Look out!" Gunnar shouts and dives on top of Lacey, knocking them both to the ground.

The force of Gunnar on top of her knocks the wind from Lacey's lungs and she gasps to breath as second force impacts with them. She's all but convinced she'll suffocate when suddenly she feels the cool rain on her face, she gasps out and looks up seeing Lee standing over her. There's nothing but relief on his face as he pulls her to her feet.

Lacey looks down and sees Gunnar's lifeless body on the ground. Sticking out from his back is a large chunk of metal from the plane. A chunk that should have been in her back not his. She always knew that all of The Expendables were weary of her, thinking she'd break Lee's heart. But something must have changed for Gunnar gave his life for her.

"We have to go." Lee tells her, "The plane is no good, we have to get to the boarder in a car." He grabs her hand and starts pulling her.

"We can't leave him." Lacey protests looking to Gunnar, "He died…for me."

"We have no choice." Lee tells her and pulls her away. He doesn't stop till he gets to a military jeep where Church sits in the back.

Lissa's head slams against the window of the plane as Barney struggles to regain control. Red lights flash inside the plane and warning beeps come from multiple control panels. An icy chill rushes through her veins. It freezes up her anger and numbs the near insanity. She's left feeling cold, alone and hurt. A loud sob leaves her lips as her hand goes to the bleeding wound on her forehead. There's now more blood in her hair, making it more like it did back in New York. Billy. Billy's dead. She finds herself sobbing again.

"We need to land somewhere." Barney shouts to her, "I can't override the controls so it's going to be a crash landing. You hear me Liss?"

Control override, hack, hacker, Billy. Billy's dead. Lissa's mind races through those thoughts and finds all roads lead back to Billy which leaves her sobbing. "I can't….do…this anymore." Lissa says looking to Barney. She doesn't move to buckle in despite his warnings of a crash landing.

"You have to." Barney tells her.

Lissa notices the dark spots on his clothing and her gaze goes to the floor where there's a pool of blood at his feet. She knows Barney is wounded bad just like she knows she is too. "We're not getting out of here. No matter what we do, we're not. We might make it back into South Korea, but it'll be just to die in some hospital."

"Nobody is dying." Barney says through gritted teeth, as he manages to turn the badly damaged plane around so they can head to the border.

A hysterical laugh leaves Lissa's lips, "Their all dead." Lissa shouts at him, gesturing around the plane empty expect for the bodies of Tool, Maggie and Billy. "Lee, Lacey and Church are the last hope. We need them to get out; we need them to get all the data Church recovered back to the US. Even with everything Caesar and Toll did, it won't be enough. That boarder is going to be like Times Square on New Year's, but instead of drunks it's going to be pissed off North Koreans."

She's saying the one thing Barney has refused to say himself. He knows he's wounded badly and he knows Lissa is too and not just physically. "If I crash this plane at the border, there's no chance at survival." Barney tells her.

"I've always been a fan of grand finales." Lissa says looking to him and reaches a hand out.

Barney releases one hand from the yoke of the plane and takes hers in his. "Alright Christmas, I've got one last gift for yah." He says into the com.

**Washington, DC**

"After that Barney Ross and Lissa Hollis crashed their plane at the border. It created enough chaos that a path was cleared for myself Lee and Lacey to make it out. While trying to flee out of the airport, we came under fire. Lee and Lacey were shot and I had no choice but to leave. A reliable agent in South Korea confirmed they were dead, not taken prisoner." Church says to the president. "So there you go, there's the story."

"Do you really expect me to believe all that?" The president asks resting her pen on her desk.

Church clears his throat, "I don't care what you believe." He tells her, "I fought alongside them all and they are damn good people. Damn good people who deserve to live in peace and not be hounded by reporters. People who have made countless sacrifices for this country. People who if this country needs saving will come, but they can't do it if people know who they are. So as far as you know the rebel team known as The Exes is dead." Church then pulls a second stack of files from his briefcase and drops them on the president's desk, "So here's your story. I used agents who were killed during the invasion to fill in for the real members of The Exes. Took a little creative control and there you have it." Church grabs the stack of files on The Expendables and shoves them into his briefcase before closing it.

"Tell me Mr. Church, did they all make it?" The president asks looking up from the stack in front of her.

"I told you Madame President. People like The Expendables don't die; they just go to hell and regroup." Church says with a grin.

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**Authors Note: There is one more chapter to come! So hold off on the computer smashing and the pitching up of pitch forks, hehe. I could be bribed to post then next chapter sooner than Tuesday with some more of the awesome comments you guys have been reading. To the recent guest commenter, thank you!**


	36. Chapter 35: End

**Six Months Later:**

Church walks through the crowded New York City streets where he's on his way to another intelligence meeting. There are meetings basically every day to assess any future threats, something they all are scared of. Though he knows no country will dare attack, not with the knowledge that North Korean invasion was stopped with all force possible from the US. A nondescript woman bumps into him and he feels something drop into his pocket as he moves to steady her. "You alright?"

"Fine, fine. Sorry." She apologies and then continues on her path down the street not looking back.

With the woman gone, Church reaches into his pocket and pulls out a simple pre-paid cellphone the type of phone commonly called burners. There's nothing unique about the phone, he finds after looking it over. No contacts, no messages, no marks on the outside. His job came with the knowledge he'd get a lot of phones dropped like this for him to use. Informants, undercover agents and even people in the government opted to contact him this way, though they usually left a clue as to who would be calling. The mystery of who sent him the phone is soon answered when it begins vibrating in his hand; he hits send and brings it to his ear. "This is Church."

"Hello Church." Lissa Hollis' voice comes over the other end.

"The whole point of the president going along with the charade that you are dead was so you all could retire Miss. Hollis." Church explains. After meeting with Church the president agreed it was in The Expendables best interest to remain dead so they could do what they do without people interfering. CIA agents who died in the battle for American freedom were named as the Exes. It let The Expendables die and agents who died to die as fake heroes –but heroes none the less.

"Well I just wanted to say that we've picked somewhere and that we're safe." Lissa tells him, "I haven't had any lingering effects from the mind protocols being wiped from my head either."

"Glad to hear it." Church tells her.

On the other end of the line, Lissa looks up from the park bench she's sitting on with a laptop in her lap and the cellphone she's on plugged into it. The park is filled with happy families and joggers with their dogs. Salty sea air blows coolly across her face and sends pieces of her now light brown hair in every which way. After all the darkness, she's dyed her hair close to her natural light brown color instead of the black. She wants more light in her life and it helps that there is a certain solider from a New York alley way who likes that color. "So I'll be monitoring that site I set up. Comment if you need us, but until then you won't know where we are. I made sure of that." Lissa tells Church, "So stay safe Church."

"You too Agent Hollis." Church says, "And for what it's worth I think you all deserve this."

Lissa disconnects the call and closes up the laptop, tucking it into an oversized purse. She takes one last look around the park and walks towards the exit. On the way she turns the phone off and tosses it into a trashcan. Even if someone was listening to Church or trying to find the call they won't be able to track the signal. She made sure it would be untraceable. She stops walking when she reaches a black four door sedan in the parking lot, tossing the laptop bag into the backseat.

Much of Church's story to the president was true. Just about six months ago The Exes did invade North Korea in an operation deemed The Last Stand. They were all wounded and some of them only survived by the skin of their teeth. Low Jack's friends of friends came through getting them out to Japan, stabilized and moved to Australia. Since then they all recovered and moved about, there was no way they could go back to New Orleans's for a while. But a month ago they did find a new place to call home.

"WELCOME TO STORM, MAINE". A gray faded wooden sign reads as Lissa drives down the street. Storm, Maine is a small town, well more of a very small town population wise. It's nearly an island expect for one about four mile long side attaching to Maine. Other than that it's water on all sides. It's a town that was built and forgotten over the years due to the poor economy and the risk of flood. The majority of houses in the area are in foreclosure, some used as summer homes, but the most all belonging to members of The Expendables. The town offers the privacy they need to take off by plane in the middle of night and escape route access through the ocean. It's much quieter than the farmhouses in New Orleans, but after all the noise which comes with war they are happy for it.

Lissa pulls down a long rock driveway and about half a mile down she spots the turnoff for Barney and Maggie's house. Squinting she can make out the smoke from the barbeque grill going and with the car windows down she can hear Gunnar's loud laugh. Looks like there's another cookout going on at Barney's this afternoon. Lissa continues driving down the driveway till she spots the lighthouse, a smile forming on her face. In her search to rid herself from the darkness, the hurt that came with everything she's been through, she began looking for signs of light. What's better than a lighthouse? Plus a certain compass guided her back to Billy, with their crazy life a lighthouse is a good idea too.

When she nears their modest two story home, Remy and Colt come running with happy barks. Lissa and Billy are both looking forward to letting the dogs run through the snow this winter. Snow, winter, a future. There were moments on the plane out of Korea where she didn't know if that was something she and many of the others had – especially Billy. Things were touch and go after he took a bullet to the stomach which caused internal bleeding. The insanity created by the thought of losing Billy was enough for her to take up a vote to throw the North Korean leader out of the plane. Cold hard revenge. It was Barney who backed her play right away, though not for the same reason. He didn't trust what would come of Kong Ji if he was handed over the government. It was better for everyone if Kong Ji and his invasion plans died together.

Lissa shakes her head, forcing the thoughts out. She finds her left hand has travelled to the knife wound scar on her lower back where Kong Ji stabbed her. It's just another scar, another memento from her fighting the good fight. The nail scar to her hand, the bullet wound scar to the chest, the zapper stab wound on her stomach and now the knife wound scar. She stops the car at the end of the driveway and climbs out, just as Billy walks out the front door.

"How's Church?" Billy asks, managing to close the front door with his arms filled with a couple of trays of ribs and bag of beer cans.

"Missing us terribly, but good." Lissa grins as she walks over meeting him. She kisses him and frees his hands of the bag of beer. "Off to Barney's?" She asks him.

"Let's take the boat, Remy and Colt have been puppy dog eyeing me all day. They just love it when the boat goes fast." Billy tells her and starts heading for the backyard.

When they arrive at Barney's Remy and Colt are the first to go running off and straight towards the table of food. Everyone is there, Gunnar, Yin, Lee, Lacey, Toll, Tool, Caesar, Maggie, Barney and now them. Booker, Trench and Low Jack all headed back to areas of the Earth unknown, but were most likely relaxing. Chaos and Hunter headed out to Los Angeles, where Chaos got a job working for some elite security firm; they are all pretty sure it's a CIA front company. Jasmine returned to working with Church, with none of her coworkers knowing she was one of The Exes.

Lissa takes a second standing on the dock. She looks over all her family and friends and finds herself smiling. They are all here, they all survived. They'll live to see another day, another fight.

"Liss you coming?" Billy asks her, turning around when he notices she's not beside him.

"Coming." Lissa says and jobs a few steps to catch up with him. Something tells her Storm, Maine is going to be a nice place to live.

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**Authors Note: So here it is the final chapter! A huge thank you to those who have read and to those of you who have commented. It means so much to me. As of now I don't have any solid story plans for Billy and Lissa. I have a few ideas but nothing super good. So I'm going to say this is it for now – though it was because of you guys there were two unplanned parts after the first story. A fourth part might just have to happen. So tell me any crazy missions you'd like to see The Expendables on?**


End file.
